Entrepreneurship at Utrecht University

Utrecht University is convinced that in modern societies, people increasingly need an entrepreneurial attitude and that universities should be playing an active role in the circulation of knowledge between the university and the society. To facilitate this, and in particular the process of new value creation, the Utrecht Center for Entrepreneurship has been established in 2008.

By academic entrepreneurship we mean the starting up and running of businesses that:

• develop products and/or services based on academic research; and/or
• use academic insight to support entrepreneurial endeavours.

The Utrecht Center for Entrepreneurship does not limit itself to the starting and running of businesses, but also looks at entrepreneurship in the broadest sense: the discovery and creation of new value by developing ideas, researching opportunities and executing the necessary steps to realise those ideas.

Mission

The mission of the Utrecht Center for Entrepreneurship is to provide education in this field to all students of Utrecht University, to offer practical support for academic entrepreneurship and to do research into entrepreneurship. These three components are interdependent and enforce each other. 
The objective of the Utrecht Center for Entrepreneurship is to stimulate an entrepreneurial attitude in students, lecturers, researchers, support staff and in employers and employees in general. Important regional partners are Rabobank Utrecht and &samhoud.

Strategy

The Utrecht Center for Entrepreneurship aims to distinguish itself from other centres of entrepreneurship by focusing on:

• academic entrepreneurship
• sustainable entrepreneurship
• ambitious entrepreneurship
• the development of an entrepreneurial attitude in people and organisations
• stimulating entrepreneurship in companies throughout their entire life cycle