Start-Up Lab (SUL) is an interdisciplinary laboratory, where students—who are enrolled in master, PhD and post-doc programmes—work together in order to develop their innovative ideas. At the end of the three-month “innovation journey”, the teams of students present their original projects  in front of a jury of experts with an international profile.

During the three months of the program, the students are provided with 50 hours of training sessions managed by Alessandro (Rossi), an academic specialized in the field of innovation management, and Vittorino (Filippas), a serial entrepreneur with the passion for business recovery and relaunching. In addition to the training part, resident mentors (digital entrepreneurs and local innovation experts)  assist the participants in validation and optimization of their business ideas. Moreover, one or two specialized sessions are organized in order to elaborate on specific topics such as agile validation, business model, financial aspects,  and presentation skills (pitch), which are crucial for the final event. Mentorship sessions include the rotation of local and foreign startuppers, entrepreneurs, managers, academics, innovation experts and strategic consultants, which ensures the exposure to a wide variety of experiences and sensibilities.

The winners get sponsored by the University of Trento to participate in a global innovation competition of students “Virginia Tech Knowledge Work”, which takes place Virginia (USA) every August.