The Votes Are In: Entrepreneurship Education Is Europe’s Missing Innovation Piece

Why entrepreneurship education holds the key to innovation in higher education

We asked our network, “What’s the most critical investment HEIs should make to build real innovation capacity?”. Entrepreneurship Education topped the list with 39% of the vote – closely followed by Industry Partnerships at 35%, and Research to Market Support at 26%.

While all three areas are vital to building innovation capacity, the strong preference for entrepreneurship education offers a timely lens through which to explore where and how higher education can make a transformative impact.

A pulse check on innovation in higher education

We launched this poll to hear directly from the innovation community – educators, founders, researchers, and policy leaders – about where they think higher education institutions (HEIs) should invest to unlock their innovation potential.

The indicated preference for entrepreneurship education – which is the process of equipping individuals with the skills, mindset, and knowledge to identify opportunities, innovate, and create value – speaks volumes. It signals a perceived systemic gap in how universities equip students and staff to become entrepreneurs.

This gap hasn’t gone unnoticed. As part of the Union of Skills, the EIT Higher Education Initiative is aiming to train 200,000 people in innovation and entrepreneurship by 2028. The effort, rooted in the STEM Education Strategic Plan, is a step toward better preparing students and staff to turn ideas into real-world impact.

Bridging the gap

Entrepreneurship education bridges that gap. It doesn’t just prepare students to launch start-ups. It cultivates a mindset of creativity, risk-taking, problem-solving, and resilience; the same traits that drive innovation at every level, from the lab to the boardroom.

This isn’t just a classroom issue; it’s about embedding a culture of entrepreneurship that spans generations of students and staff, shaping how the university thinks, teaches, and operates far beyond the classroom.

Entrepreneurship education: A lever for systemic transformation

Investing in entrepreneurship education isn’t about adding a few business modules to a curriculum. It’s about reshaping the reward systems and culture of higher education to foster agency, adaptability, and innovation.

This investment can:

• Equip graduates to become solution-builders in every sector.
• Connect academic research with real-world market needs.
• Encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration between faculties, students, and external stakeholders.
• Transform HEIs into innovation ecosystems, not just knowledge factories.

Turning insight into action

If the innovation community is asking for entrepreneurship education, we must also ask: what’s holding HEIs back?

Some barriers include:

• Rigid curricula that limit cross-disciplinary and experiential learning.
• Funding models that reward publications over impact.
• Lack of incentives for faculty to engage in entrepreneurial teaching.
• Insufficient support structures – like incubators, mentorship, and venture-building tools within universities.

To unlock change, we need:

• A policy environment that prioritises innovation capacity building.
• Public-private partnerships that bridge academia and industry.
• Leadership commitment within universities to drive cultural change.
• To invest in faculty training, embed innovation and entrepreneurship in curricula, and strengthen support systems

A systemic challenge demands a systemic response

Entrepreneurship education emerged as the crowd favourite, not just as a course, but as a catalyst for innovation. Yet real innovation won’t come from one initiative alone.

To build the innovation capacity and global competitiveness that Europe needs, HEIs must align strategies, incentives, and ecosystems. Through our growing community, we are actively fostering this shift – enabling institutions to move from silos to systems, and from isolated pilots to shared best practices and long-term, institution-wide transformation.

Europe produces world-class research, but too often, the commercial value is captured elsewhere. If we want to change that, we need to invest in the full pathway from idea to impact – starting with innovation and entrepreneurship education. It’s about equipping institutions to turn research into real-world solutions, and researchers into innovation leaders.

Let’s keep the conversation going. What shifts are you seeing – or driving – within your institution? What would it take to make entrepreneurship a core engine of European innovation and competitiveness?