Behind The Scenes / Meet Jurgen Joossens, Deputy CEO of LIST

Why should creating a spin-off be as valued as publishing in a top scientific journal?

Creating a spin-off generates direct economic and societal impact. It creates jobs, attracts investment, and strengthens innovation ecosystems. Deep-tech spin-offs are typically built on years of scientific research and publications, so they should be seen as a natural continuation and impact pathway of excellent science.

Scientific publications remain essential because they advance knowledge. But when research can also be translated into products, services, or companies that address real-world challenges, the impact becomes tangible for society and the economy. A successful spin-off demonstrates that research excellence can lead to concrete value creation.

A successful spin-off demonstrates that research excellence can lead to concrete value creation

The new spin-off policy is an important milestone. What change do you hope it will trigger?

LIST should position itself as a key economic R&D catalyst for Luxembourg and the Greater Region. To achieve this, we need to strengthen our capacity to transform research results into innovative companies.

With this policy, LIST is making a clear commitment to support researchers who want to explore entrepreneurship. We aim to provide coaching and guidance to help teams become investor-ready, ensure that our licensing agreements are startup-friendly, and create an environment where employees can safely test business ideas.

The broader ambition is to make entrepreneurship a recognized and encouraged pathway within the organization, alongside scientific excellence.

LIST should position itself as a key economic R&D catalyst for Luxembourg and the Greater Region

How will it make LIST more attractive to scientists, entrepreneurs and investors?

For scientists, the policy creates opportunities to develop entrepreneurial skills through events like Embrace the Spin-off Spirit!, entrepreneurship and spin-off creation awareness raising, training with Venture 101, a venture crash course to generate spin-off ideas, coaching with Venture Academy, a coaching programme to mature and pitch for the first time spin-off ideas, and other dedicated initiatives that stimulate an entrepreneurial mindset which we launched over the last year. We also recognize that failure can be part of innovation, provided valuable lessons are learned. That is why we want to offer researchers the flexibility to explore startup opportunities while maintaining a connection with LIST during a defined period.

For entrepreneurs, building successful spin-offs requires complementary teams. Excellent scientists should be connected with experienced entrepreneurs and business talent. This is one reason why we launched a new funding for Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EiRs) to co-found our spin-offs. Upon evaluation and selection by LIST Ventures, EiRs will receive up to €50K financial support per profileover a period of maximum one year to: refine the value proposition and business model, validate market potential, drive customer acquisition, secure investment, build a cross-functional team, and eventually launch the spin-off company. We are also simplifying processes through clear and efficient contractual templates to enable faster and smoother company creation.

For investors, the objective is to create higher-quality, investor-ready opportunities. Spin-off teams will be supported through a structured and gated maturation process, and licensing conditions will be designed to facilitate investment and growth.

Excellent scientists should be connected with experienced entrepreneurs and business talent

What additional capabilities or resources will be required to make the policy successful?

The Entrepreneur-in-Residence programme is already an important element we are piloting. In parallel, we are strengthening valorisation projects that support entrepreneurial initiatives emerging from research.

With LIST Ventures, we also have a dedicated team focused on reinforcing our spin-off engine, supporting venture creation, and connecting researchers with the right expertise, networks, and funding opportunities.