Green HExagon: An International Pre-Incubation Programme for Green & Social Entrepreneurship

Green HExagon is an international, primarily online pre-incubation programme for sustainable business ideas, run by university incubators in five European countries. Created within an Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership, it works at the preincubation stage, where ideas are still too early for an incubator or accelerator. Over four months, teams move from concept to pitch through weekly workshops, an in-person bootcamp and a closing competition, each idea tied to a Sustainable Development Goal. The programme has continued since 2023, outlasting its grant, growing from four partners to six and financing itself. Its main published output, the Green HExagon Handbook, documents how the programme is designed and run so that other institutions can also adapt it. The case shows what makes cross-border entrepreneurship support work: committed university leadership with staff and resources behind it, the ability to reach students, graduates and researchers, and a place in a wider start-up ecosystem.