Complete overhaul of Ticino’s start-up centre

As part of the celebrations for its 25th anniversary and together with other partners in the Ticino Regional System of Innovation, Università della Svizzera italiana engages in many activities to foster entrepreneurship and innovation. Among these, we find USI Startup Centre, the incubator and service unit for startup entrepreneurs, which has undergone a complete overhaul, including the relocation of its offices and workspaces at the new Lugano East Campus.

"USI Startup Centre is part of the strategic framework of initiatives related to the third mission of the University, which is to serve the community and contribute to the overall social-economic growth in the region", explains Prof. Luca Maria Gambardella, Pro-Rector for Innovation and Corporate Relations at USI. "By confirming its commitment to the incubation of startup initiatives, USI pursues objective to transferring knowledge to society and to the transformation of research results into useful know-how for enterprises."

USI Startup Centre is the result of a complete overhaul of the Start-up Promotion Centre (CP Start-up), the service unit of USI created in 2004 by initiative of Foundation for the Lugano Faculties of USI and transferred to the University in 2018. 

More space for start-ups

With 720 square meters the new location offers twice the space of the old building. It will host more start-ups as the number of applications is continuously growing. In addition, it is planned to expand the team. USI supports and contributes to the lively startup community in our region by increasing the quality of its services for the incubation of innovative entrepreneurial projects. The startup community grows also through the organisation of events throughout the year.

"We want to open our doors to people interested in discovering the world of innovation," says Francesco Lurati, professor at USI and director of USI Startup Centre. "We will do this with events that connect startuppers with the academic world, so that they can share ideas and experiences and generate that ‘energy’ needed for them to develop; but also more popular or networking events, to grow the innovation ecosystem in Ticino and establish valuable relationships for the growth path of startuppers".

Proven incubator program

A core service of the USI Startup Centre is the incubator, a structure designed to support startups in their early stages, providing professional mentoring and coaching, training and access to the regional and national entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems, as well as providing workspaces. "We receive more than a hundred requests every year, which shows how relevant and necessary this sort of service is," comments Alcide Barberis, director of the incubator at USI Startup Centre. "In our incubator we have on average over 25 startups that we typically follow for a period of two years, in particular by introducing them to a 'network' of experts and contacts that are essential for growing an innovative business initiative". An aspect, that of community, which is fostered in the renovated USI Startup Centre.

Networking opportunities

The new Centre is part of the brand new East Campus of USI. The Faculty of Informatics, the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, the SUPSI Department of Innovative Technologies and the Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence (IDSIA), affiliated with both USI and SUPSI are accommodated in the same building. “The advantages are clear”, says Barberis, “network and potential collaboration opportunities for our startups and possibilities for those department students to interact with our startups, our team and in general all the specialists, entrepreneurs, etc gravitating around the Centre.

(Press release / DL / SK)