The Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) in Spain established IDEASUPV in 1992 as the first service to support and foster university entrepreneurship in a Spanish university. The mission of IDEAS UPV is to promote the entrepreneurial culture at the UPV, and to raise awareness and motivate the university community in the creation of new entrepreneurial projects, especially in the creation and development of innovative and technology-based companies. Since 1992, IDEASUPV has advised more than 8,350 entrepreneurs and 6,077 entrepreneurial projects. IDEASUPV has promoted the creation of almost 1000 companies including 28 UPV spinoffs with a global survival rate of 66.4%. Since 2012 more than 200 startups have been incubated in the university campus a the StartUPV ecosystem. In the last 7 years, 11,500 students have been reached with approximately 5,000 hours of entrepreneurial trainings. The UPV startups have raised more than 500M€ in the last 7 years in private investing rounds. The UPV was awarded by the EU with the European Entrepreneurship Promotion Award in 2009. The UPV also contributed to obtaining the label of Entrepreneurial European Region for Valencia in 2015. At an international level, the UPV has participated in numerous international entrepreneurship projects to facilitate the exchange of new knowledge, enabling professors to teach transdisciplinary studies through innovative methods and stimulate synergies between universities and entrepreneurial support systems worldwide. The UPV plays a very important role within its regional entrepreneurial ecosystem. Moreover, the UPV actively works with private corporates and has created 73 business chairs with them.

Rector D. Jose Esteban Capilla Romá
Rector
Rector of the UPV since 2021.,  Universidad Politècnica de València



Prof. Maria Esther Gómez Martín
Vice-rector for Students and Entrepreneurship
Vice-rector for Entrepreneurship since 2021. Vice-rector’s office for Students and Entrepreneurship,  Universidad Politècnica de València



María Márquez
Director of the Entrepreneurship Area and the IDEASUPV Program
Vice Rector’s office for Students and Entrepreneurship,  Universidad Politècnica de València



Prof. Francisco Jose Mora Mas
Former Rector
UPV rector for 8 years (From 2013 to 2021). Department of Electronic Engineering,  Universidad Politècnica de València



Prof. José Millet Roig
Former Vice-rector for Employment and Entrepreneurship. Ex-Director of IDEASUPV
Department of Electronic Engineering. Universidad Politècnica de Valènci,  Universidad Politècnica de València



Prof. Justo Nieto Nieto
Former Rector
UPV rector for 19 years (From 1986 to 2004). He founded the IDEAS UPV program.,  Universidad Politècnica de València

UPV ENTREPRENEURS WHO NOW ARE ADVISORS
Iñaki Belenguer (CEO and co-founder at Coverwallet)
Iker Markaide (Founder and Executive Chairman - Zubi Group and founder of PeerTransfer, that now is the unicorn Flywire Carlos Ferrando (Founder and CEO at CLOSCA | Inspire Change) Adrián Doménech (Co-founder & CEO of Camillion)
David Pistoni (Co-founder & CEO at Zeleros Hyperloop)
ORGANISATIONS
Berkeley University of California (Participating university in the Master in Startup Administration
MSA at the UPV).
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (UPV and the Valencia region participated in their MIT-REAP acceleration program for entrepreneurial regions).
Silicon Valley (They offer their facilities for internships and stays for our MSA students).
Startup Valencia (The association of the startup ecosystem of the Valencian Community. They collaborate with the UPV in events, challenges, etc.).
Valencia Activa (They help promote and coordinate employment policies and local economic development in the city of Valencia, around the areas of Employment, Entrepreneurship and
Training).
ENHANCE (European alliance in Entrepreneurship with Technische Universität Berlin, Politeknika Waszawska, Politecnico di Milano, RWTH Aachen, NTNU, and Chalmers).
INNOCENS (European project in which the IDEASUPV model was implemented in eight universities in Armenia, Georgia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan in collaboration with KTH and TUAS).
FUNDING BODIES
Generalitat Valenciana (The Regional Ministry of Sustainable Economy, Productive Sectors,
Commerce and Labour finance entrepreneurship programs, mobility grants, trainings, awards, for university students and teachers).
Banco Santander (Funds entrepreneurship programs such as Explorer, scholarships for MSA students, projects, etc).
TechTransfer UPV Investment Fund (First technology transfer fund promoted in a Spanish public university). EIT Climate-KIC (A European Commission initiative to fight climate change that organizes an accelerator, the largest cleantech startup competition, mobility programs for green entrepreneurs,
and trainings that are delivered by UPV).
Special acknowledgment to the whole IDEASUPV staff team who, with their effort and dedication every day, make all this possible. And to our StartUPV ecosystem because entrepreneurs are the most important actors of an entrepreneurial ecosystem.