The final award ceremony of Start Cup Toscana 2026, the annual competition rewarding the best high-tech business ideas emerging from Tuscan universities and research institutes, will take place on Monday 19 October 2026, from 14:00 to 18:30. The event will be held in person at Cappella Guinigi, Campus San Francesco (IMT School for Advanced Studies, Piazza San Francesco 19, Lucca).

The competition, funded and sponsored by the Region of Tuscany through its GiovaniSì initiative, is organized by the Regional Office for Technology Transfer in collaboration with Tuscan universities and higher education institutions. The top winning teams will secure cash prizes, service packages from corporate sponsors, and access to the prestigious National Innovation Award (PNI), taking place on 3 and 4 December in Bari.

Among the ten regional finalists vying for access to the National Innovation Award (PNI), two innovative start-up projects are led by research groups from the University of Siena: DETHENCO (Life Sciences / Medtech) and UNalVERSE (ICT).

Alongside the finalists’ pitch presentations and the final prize announcements, the event will feature a dedicated public round table titled “From sustainable energy transition to systemic resilience: the role of innovation and knowledge exchange between university and business”. The panel will gather academic researchers and prominent industry representatives from Enel Group, Baker Hughes, and Insula Net to discuss knowledge transfer and collaborative innovation.

Attendance is free upon registration. Please register via the online registration form. For general details on the competition, visit the official Start Cup Toscana Webpage