One-liner: the Universitat Politècnica de València's full startup-creation ecosystem, run under IDEAS-UPV (Área de Emprendimiento) since 1992 — Spain's first university entrepreneurship-support program — combining incubation, acceleration, advising and financing access for student/alumni founders.
What a founder gets
- Asesoramiento (advising): dedicated personal advisers who accompany a project step by step, monitoring progress toward company creation.
- Formación (training): a practical, learn-by-doing entrepreneurial curriculum, including an initial itinerary for new founders plus specific startup-management training (finance, business, tech).
- StartUPV incubation/acceleration: the ecosystem's flagship program — incubates and accelerates startups founded by UPV students and alumni, giving them a structured on-campus "entrepreneurial experience."
- Matching UPV: matches startups with corporates to solve real corporate innovation challenges (open-innovation channel).
- Funding access help: specific prizes/aid at every stage (from basic ideas to trading companies), guidance on public/private financing, and direct investor contacts.
- Cultura emprenedora: a full academic-year calendar of entrepreneurship events (e.g. Week[EMPRENDE] — a free intensive team-based founding course; Laboratorio de Ideas: From Thesis to Market for master's/PhD researchers).
- Part of the UPV-Innovación knowledge-transfer office (Oficina de Transferencia de Conocimiento), linking StartUPV founders to university IP/tech-transfer channels.
Who it's for
- UPV-linked founders — students, alumni, and researchers — across all three UPV campuses (Vera/Valencia, Gandia, Alcoi).
- Strong in deeptech, engineering, and semiconductors/chips (feeds into UPVfab), but open to any sector via the general IDEAS-UPV advising/training track.
- Idea through early-stage; StartUPV itself is the incubation/acceleration layer for teams that have already formed a company or are close to it.
How to engage
- Start via the "primera reunión" (first-meeting) form at upv.es/entidades/IDEAS — routes to the right adviser.
- Campus contacts: Vera — Ciudad Politècnica de la Innovación, Edificio 8B, Acceso N, 4ª Planta, 46022 València (ideas@ideas.upv.es); Gandia — Carrer del Paranimf 1, Edif. Telecomunicaciones, Planta 0, Clase 3 (omorant@ideas.upv.es); Alcoi — Edificio Carbonell, 4ª Planta, Área de Relaciones con el Entorno, 03801 Alcoi (lupebla@ideas.upv.es).
- General switchboard: +34 96 387 70 00 / +34 620 04 00 50.
Key facts
- Founded 1992 — first university entrepreneurship-support program in Spain.
- The Concurso START UPV (Alcoi campus edition) reached its 11th edition in 2026 with €8,000 in prizes — its largest prize pool to date, recognising 8 student/graduate-led projects.
- IDEAS UPV regularly co-organizes ecosystem events with CEEI Valencia and Startup Valencia (e.g. the "Sales to Scale" Focus Pyme session, July 2026) and hosted a VDS-linked delegation of major Japanese corporates (via TECH Tokyo/ICEX) exploring collaboration with UPV startups, spin-offs and research groups.
- Runs teacher-facing training too ("Aula Emprende: From Class to Market") to build entrepreneurial-talent detection skills among UPV faculty.
Relations
- See also: UPVfab
- See also: Idea Stage (phase)
- See also: CEEI Valencia
- See also: Startup Valencia
- Runs: StartUPV IDEAS-UPV
- Runs: Premios IDEAS UPV 2026