The project is conducted by the Department of Production and Management Engineering (DIGEP) at Politecnico di Torino in collaboration with the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering (DIG) at Politecnico di Milano, and the Department of Management (DISA) at Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna.
Scientific coordinator of the project
Prof. Elisa Ughetto
Elisa Ughetto (Ph.D.) is a co-founder and director of the Bureau of Entrepreneurial Finance (BEF), a joint research center of Politecnico di Torino and Politecnico di Milano. She is an Associate Professor at Politecnico di Torino, where she teaches Accounting and Corporate Finance and Entrepreneurial Finance at undergraduate level. She has served as Associate Editor of Journal of Small Business Management and Journal of the International Council for Small Business. She currently serves as Associate Editor of the International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management and PlosOne and she is a Member of the Editorial Board of Small Business Economics, Management Decision, Venture Capital: an Entrepreneurship Journal, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Journal of Industrial and Business Economics.
Elisa is research associate at the Bureau of Reasearch on Innovation Complexity and Knowledge (BRICK) at Collegio Carlo Alberto. She is scientific advisor for the Observatory of Climate Finance, Politecnico di Milano. She is a member of the Scientific Committee of Social Impact Agenda per l’Italia. She has been Visiting Scholar at the European Investment Fund and at the Washington University in St. Louis, Visiting Professor at the University of Augsburg and at the Université de Lyon Jean Moulin. She is a member of the European Science Foundation (ESF), College of Expert Reviewers, and College of Review Panel. She is co-coordinator of the Ph.D. course “Entrepreneurship and startup creation from University research” of Politecnico di Torino. She sits in the Board of the national Ph.D. program in “Sustainable Development and Climate Change”. She has worked as principal investigator and research member on projects funded by the European Commission, the European Investment Bank, the Italian Government, the European Patent Office (EPO), and the Bank of Italy.
Her current research interests are in the areas of entrepreneurial finance, management of innovation, technology transfer, finance for innovation. She has contributed articles to international refereed journals, such as Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Research Policy, Industrial and Corporate Change, Technovation, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, British Journal of Management, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Small Business Economics, International Small Business Journal, Journal of Small Business Management, International Journal of Production Economics, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, R&D Management, Journal of Economic Surveys, International Business Review, Journal of Business Research, Regional Studies, and Social Science and Medicine, among others.
Scientific coordinator of the partner university
Prof. Annalisa Croce
Annalisa Croce (Ph.D.) is a co-founder and director of the Bureau of Entrepreneurial Finance (BEF). She is an Associate Professor at Politecnico di Milano where she teaches Accounting and Business Organization at undergraduate level. She has served as Associate Editor of the Journal of Small Business Management and she currently is a member of the Editorial Board of Venture Capital: an entrepreneurship Journal. She is Director of EMBA Part Time at MIP, Politecnico di Milano, and Member of the Scientific Committee of the Observatory on Climate Finance.
She has been Visiting Scholar at the Boston College and Visiting Professor at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She is a member of the European Science Foundation (ESF), College of Expert Reviewers, and College of Review Panel. She has participated in numerous research projects, promoted by the European Commission (EC), the Italian Ministry of Research (MIUR), and various private and public institutions. In particular, she participated to the FP7 VICO research project on “Financing entrepreneurial ventures in Europe: impact on innovation, employment growth, and competitiveness” (Scientific coordinator: Prof. Massimo G. Colombo) and to the FP 7 RISIS project on “Research infrastructure for research and innovation policy studies”.
Her research activity has concerned several major research areas, spanning topics that include corporate and entrepreneurial finance, social impact finance, and economics of innovation. She has studied these topics mainly empirically, making use of a wide range of empirical methodologies. She is co-author of more than thirty publications in international scientific journals, including the Journal of Business Venturing, Research Policy, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Corporate Finance, Small Business Economics, and Journal of Product Innovation Management, among others.
Scientific coordinator of the partner university
Prof. Laura Toschi
Laura Toschi is Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management at the Department of Management (DISA) of the University of Bologna. She serves as the Deputy Director of the Executive Master in Technology and Innovation Management at the Bologna Business School. At the University of Bologna, she received her Ph.D. in Management, with a concentration on entrepreneurial finance and knowledge creation, and a Laurea in Management Engineering.
She has been Visiting Scholar at the Boston University and at the University of Queensland. After obtaining the Ph.D., she received a ERC Fellowship from the EU to do research at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex in the UK. She is member of the scientific committee of the Social Impact Agenda per l’Italia and of the Business and Collective Intelligence Lab of the University of Perugia.
Her main research interests are in the fields of technology transfer, innovation management, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial finance and impact investing, sustainability transitions. Her research outputs include publications in journals, such as Research Policy, Ecological Economics, Journal of Business Venturing, Industrial and Corporate Change, Journal of Technology Transfer, International Small Business Journal, and Technological Forecasting and Social Change, among others.
Project team members
Ing. Matteo Ambrois
Matteo is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Management Engineering (DIG) at Politecnico di Milano. His research interests are mainly related to Entrepreneurial Finance. His interests concern investment funds and, in particular, how sustainability requirements have influenced and will have an impact on Private Equity and VCs. He also collaborates with the Politecnico di Torino on issues related to Business Angels and VCs.
Dr. Roberto Bianchini
Roberto Bianchini is Ph.D. candidate at Politecnico di Milano. He received his MA in Financial Economics from Leuven School of Economics, Belgium and graduated from the Bocconi University, with a BA in Finance. Roberto has been a visiting scholar at the EDHEC Business School, in Nice. His main research interests are in the areas of empirical and corporate finance, climate and environmental finance, and regulatory economics. Roberto is Contract Professor at Bocconi University, Tesearcher at Politecnico di Milano, and Visiting Lecturer at EDHEC Business School. Roberto teaches Energy Economics in the M.Sc. in Energy Economics at Politecnico di Milano and Corporate Valuation in the B.Sc. in Economics and Finance at Bocconi University. Roberto has been actively involved in a number of projects funded by national and international institutions and he has been invited to talk about his research in dissemination events. In addition, Roberto works for private bodies and public institutions (Ministry of Industry, national regulatory authority for electricity and gas and antitrust authority) as independent financial advisor and independent economist.
Prof. Vincenzo Butticè
Vincenzo Butticè is a co-founder of Bureau of Entrepreneurial Finance (BEF). He is Assistant Professor at the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the Copenhagen Business School, at the Purdue University of Indiana, at Shanghai Tech University, and at Trinity College Dublin.
His main research interest is on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial finance and has appeared in Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Corporate Finance, and Research Policy, among others. He teaches Energy Economics in the M.Sc. in Energy Economics and Business Data Analytics, in the B.Sc. in Management Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. He is also lecturer of entrepreneurial finance at the MIP School of Management. He is vice-director of the Climate Finance Observatory and senior researcher of the Drone Observatory at Politecnico di Milano.
Prof. Luigi Buzzacchi
Luigi Buzzacchi is Full Professor at Politecnico di Torino in the Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST), where he teaches courses in industrial organization, urban economics and financial economics. His research interests include urban and regional economics, economics of insurance and financial markets (including venture capital contracts and innovation incentives), regulation and public policies, firm size distribution and spatial competition, and economics of professional sports.
He has contributed articles to leading economic and finance journals, such as Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, International Review of Law and Economics, Research Policy, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Social Science and Medicine, among others. He has worked as a consultant for Banca d’Italia, IVASS, and Consob. His professional career outside of academia includes serving as an independent director in financial institutions. He also served as an economic expert adviser on topics such as competition policy, litigation and arbitration cases in insurance, banking, and financial law matters.
Prof. Federico Caviggioli
Federico Caviggioli is Associate Professor at the Department of Management and Production Engineering (DIGEP) of Politecnico di Torino. He completed his Ph.D. in Economics and Management of Technology at the University of Bergamo.
His research focuses on the economics of innovation and, in particular, technology strategy, market for technologies, patent data intelligence, and the quality of patent systems. Quantitative analysis and patent data treatment are among his main skills. He published in international journals, such as Research Policy, Industry and Innovation, Technovation, and Technological Forecasting and Social Change. He contributed to several projects funded by the European Commission (EC), the European Patent Office (EPO), national institutions (e.g., Chamber of Commerce of Turin), and Italian companies (e.g., Leonardo spa).
Prof. Massimo G. Colombo
Massimo G. Colombo is the President of the Bureau of Entrepreneurial Finance (BEF). He is Full Professor of Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Finance and Innovation Economics at Politecnico di Milano. He is also the Vice-Dean for Research and Rankings of Politecnico di Milano School of Management.
His main research interests are in the area of financing, organization, and growth of high-tech entrepreneurial ventures, strategic alliances, acquisitions and open innovation. He is author (or co-author) of numerous books and articles in leading scientific journals, including Science, Strategic Management Journal, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Business Venturing, Research Policy, Journal of Industrial Economics, Small Business Economics, among others.
He has acted as the scientific coordinator of several research projects funded by public institutions such as the European Commission (EC) and the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR), and private firms. Presently, he is a member of the scientific board of the RISIS2 project. He has also provided scientific advice to prominent governmental institutions, like the European Court of Auditors (ECA), the European Investment Fund (EIF), the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the ANVUR, the regulatory agency of Italian universities and public research organizations.
Prof. Antonio De Marco
Antonio De Marco is Assistant Professor at the Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST) of Politecnico di Torino, where he teaches Urban Economics and Business Economics and Organization. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics and Complexity at Collegio Carlo Alberto and a M.Sc. in Management Engineering at Politecnico di Torino. In recent years, he contributed to several research projects funded by the European Patent Office (EPO), the Joint Research Center (JRC), and the European Commission (EC).
His research interests are in the areas of the economics of innovation, the markets for technology, the management of intellectual property rights, and the economics of technical standards. Such topics are investigated with an empirical perspective and micro-econometric techniques. His scientific works have been published in refereed international journals, including Research Policy, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Economics of Innovation and New Technology, R&D Management, Journal of Technology Transfer, Management Decision, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior and Research.
Prof. Federico Munari
Federico Munari is Full Professor of Technology and Innovation Management at the Department of Management (DISA) of the University of Bologna. He holds a Ph.D. in Management from the University of Bologna, and has been visiting scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management and visiting researcher at the École des Mines de Paris and at the Cass Business School of London. He is the Coordinator of M.Sc. Engineering Management at the University of Bologna, he has been the Coordinator of the Ph.D. in Business Administration of the University of Bologna and Director of the Master in Intellectual Property of the University of Bologna.
His main research interests are in the fields of technology transfer, entrepreneurial finance, IPR management and valuation. On such topics, he has published in several international refereed journals, such as Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Corporate Finance, Industrial and Corporate Change, Research Policy, R&D Management, Technological Forecasting and Social Change. He has been principal investigator of various EU-funded research projects. He is currently Vice-President of the Expert Group for the Assessment of the Early Impact of the Proof-of-Concept Funding Scheme of the European Research Council.
Prof. Giuseppe Scellato
Giuseppe Scellato is Full Professor at Politecnico di Torino, where he teaches Corporate Finance and Economics and Management of Innovation. Since 2018, he is the Chairman of the Business Incubator of Polytechnic of Turin (I3P). Between 2019 and 2021, he has been a member of the board of directors of LIFTT, an investment company specialised in seed financing. Since 2020, he is in the board of directors of RIF-T, an investment fund focused on early-stage ventures and scale-ups.
His main research interests are in the areas of economics and management of innovation, entrepreneurship, venture capital markets and the financing of innovation, strategic management of intellectual property rights. His scientific publications have appeared in leading international journals, including Science, Nature, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Management Studies, Research Policy, Journal of Business Research. He has been guest editor for different scientific journals in the field of innovation studies. In recent years, he has been the principal investigator of research projects funded by the European Commission (EC), the European Patent Office (EPO), the Joint Research Center (JRC), the National Bureau of Economic Research (USA). He has been member of expert groups and committees for the evaluation of public policies for research and innovation in different Italian regions. He has managed numerous consulting projects with public and private organizations in the areas of technology assessment, intellectual property rights, and innovation.
Prof. Maurizio Sobrero
Maurizio Sobrero, Ph.D. at the MIT, B.Sc. at the Università di Bologna, is Professor of Technology and Innovation Management at the Department of Management (DISA) of the University of Bologna. He has chaired the Ph.D. Program in Management, the Department of Management, the Council of the University Department’s Chairs, the University Research Committee, and was a member of the University Senate between 2009 and 2012, as well as a member of the University’s Executive Committee. He is the author of over thirty peer-reviewed international articles and five books in the Economics and Management of Innovation, with a specific focus on inter-organizational collaborations, university-industry relationships, corporate governance, and R&D investments. He has served as an expert in these matters in several Committees of different public, private and government institutions. He created and managed the Business Plan competition of the University of Bologna, launched in 2001 as the first one in the country and now present in all major Italian Universities. At the University of Bologna he participated in the launch of its incubator, Almacube, serving on its board between 2001 and 2004, and in the launch in 2001 of Bologna Business School, now part of a growing international network involving partners in Brasil, China, Russia and the US, where he currently serves as Associate Dean for Faculty Recruiting. He has taught graduate and executive courses in Europe, Asia and South America, working with different companies on several consulting projects and having served on the board of startups as well as stock-market listed companies. He served as the national expert for Research and Innovation Policies during the Italian Presidency of the EU and a member of the Italian expert group preparing the 2017 G7 meeting on Research and Innovation. He is a Founding Faculty Fellow in the area of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Skolkovo and a member of board of the MIT Alumni Association of Italy.