XYZ Camp – June 26, 2025

The XYZ CAMP 2025 is an intergenerational R&I bootcamp. It will take place on June 26, 2025, starting at 9:30 AM, in the prestigious setting of Villa Blanc, located in Via Nomentana n. 216, Rome. This event represents a unique opportunity for young talents, top executives, practitioners, professionals, government officials, NGOs leaders and academics to meet, learn, and exchange ideas. The venue, home to the renowned Luiss Business School, will provide an inspiring and stimulating environment throughout the day. During the event, students from the degree programs in Strategic Management, Innovation and Sustainability (SMIS) and Law, Digital Innovation and Sustainability (LDIS) will have the chance to present their projects to a jury composed of leading corporate managers and representatives from national and EU institutions. This is a valuable opportunity to showcase their skills, foster intergenerational dialogue, and contribute to a more innovative and sustainable future.

Save the Date – XYZ CAMP 2025

We are thrilled to invite you to XYZ CAMP 2025, an exclusive event dedicated to talent development, research, innovation, and sustainability!

Location: Villa Blanc – Via Nomentana n. 216, Rome

Date: June 26, 2025

Time: Starting at 9:30 AM

An inspiring day where students from the Strategic Management, Innovation and Sustainability and Law, Digital Innovation and Sustainability programs will pitch their start up ideas and projects proposals to top managers and institutional leaders from across Europe.

Let’s build the future and protect planet Earth, together.

• Three Letters, Three Generations: Collaborating for a Sustainable, Innovative and Inclusive Future
• Generation X (1965-1980), Generation Y (1981-1995/96), and Generation Z (1995/96-2010) are coming together to tackle the challenges and seize the opportunities presented by the ecological and digital transitions. Their collaboration is key to driving the transformation towards sustainable development for future generations.
• Learn from the wisdom and experience of Generation X, act with the dynamism and adaptability of Generation Y, and think with the innovative and forward-looking mindset of Generation Z!

XYZ is also the name of a research and innovation (R&I) learning process embedded within the SMIS program. Students engage in a cycle of laboratories to test and experiment in a real-life setting their capability for strategic technology and innovation transfer leveraging the full potential of a social sciences university. The R&I process is described in the Figure below, which shows how tech and innovation transfer is the result of a multi-stakeholder and multi-dimensional complex process taking place throughout the two-year program.

After acquiring the basic R&I projects drafting skills in the first semester through the R&I Lab, at the end of the first academic year, students identify a grand challenge and finalize in the X-labs their proof of concept as the middle step of the SMIS R&I process. The steps of this process are supposed to contribute to students’ polyhedric training by enriching their knowledge building path with applied skills and a “job on the training” approach.

Therefore, at the end of the 1st academic year, the winning X-Labs inspire the design of the Z-Labs – final step of the R&I process of the MSc educational path through which students supported by young research fellows and ad hoc experts can acquire or further develop frontier research capabilities, research and innovation methodologies, change management and tech transfer skills and tools linked to six cross-cutting transition dynamics (i.e. climate, just, industry, energy, societal and tech transitions) through tech transfer, scenario building and sustainable governance techniques.

These laboratories were initially piloted within the Master of Science in Law, Digital Innovation and Sustainability (LDIS), a program designed to equip innovation experts – particularly students with a legal or managerial background – with the necessary tools to interpret the digital and ecological transformations of contemporary society. LDIS aimed to train professionals capable of leading digital and ecological transitions through an ethical and open approach, in line with LUISS’s entrepreneurial and engaged vision.Thanks to the positive synergies developed with the Strategic Management program, this project has since evolved and merged into the Master of Science in Strategic Management, Innovation and Sustainability (SMIS), which inherits and expands upon its mission by more systematically integrating the dimensions of innovation, sustainability, and strategic management.

Now evolved and renamed as the Master of Science in Strategic Management, the program has broadened its focus, preparing graduates for leadership roles in global contexts, such as multinational companies, consultancy firms, startups, and non-profit organizations. In its new structure, the program addresses the demands of a market where innovation and sustainability are no longer an option but an essential requirement. Future managers and entrepreneurs gain the skills to navigate markets shaped by technological innovations and ecological challenges, through a research-based, collaborative learning approach. Theory is constantly put to the test through real-world projects in collaboration with leading companies, preparing participants to become active players in shaping the sustainable future of business.

Upon graduation, students will be fully prepared to apply for the following job positions:

• Strategic Management roles, focusing on shaping and implementing innovative and sustainable strategis in various industries.
• Innovation Management roles within corporations or consultancies, driving change and promoting sustainable and innovative practices.
• Sustainability Officer roles, ensuring that companies meet environmental, societal, and governance (ESG) standards.
• Entrepreneurial roles in start-ups or innovation-focused entities, leveraging strategic and sustainable innovation knowledge.
• Analyst or Consultant roles in consulting firms, government organizations or NGOs, shaping and influencing innovation and sustainability strategies and policies.
• EU projects consultants and experts drafting, submitting, managing and leading innovation and development projects or operations;
• Progress to higher academic qualifications (PhD or postgraduate diploma in Strategic Management, Corporate Sustainability, Innovation Management).

The Strategic Management, Innovation, and Sustainability program prepares students to be a leader in today's complex business environment, fostering strategic, innovative, and sustainable business practices.

In the two years of the program, students who wish to become strategic consultants, managers of innovation and sustainability are engaged in R&I and inno-preneurial activities. They will put their acquired knowledge into practice by experimenting with concrete applications in different laboratories aimed at creating:

• fundraising proposals,
• EU projects,
• start-ups,
• sustainable business models, strategies and technology transfer processes,
• fintech and green/sustainable finance mechanisms,
• innovative governance and policy solutions:

This lab will provide students with practical skills on how to prepare a Research and Innovation proposal eligible for funding under the Horizon Europe financing framework. In the laboratory, students will learn how to describe the excellence, impact, and implementation of their ideas, test their hypotheses, and apply the knowledge acquired in other courses of the MSc program.

The X-Labs were tested for the first time in 2021, in 2022, and again in 2023 and 2024, including students and professors from Luiss and MSc programme in Strategic Management, Innovation and Sustainability, and the Engage.eu partnership, as well as representatives of national and international bodies. The cycles used to be scheduled from February to the first week of May, and in a final pitching session (XYZ CAMP), in the presence of partners, institutions and stakeholders. X-Labs offer students a transformative platform, enabling them to develop proof of concepts in collaboration with industry partners. This innovative program reverses the traditional "training on the job" model to a "job on the training" approach, immersing students directly in real-world work environments and the dynamics of professional settings. Students collaborate in teams under the guidance of professional mentors, focusing on creating targeted, mission-oriented innovations. This hands-on experience equips them with practical skills and an understanding of workplace norms and social dynamics, effectively bridging the gap between academic learning and professional application.

The X-Labs capstone modules engage students in groups of 5 to 10 to tackle real-world challenges. Today, public, private, and social organizations, as well as innovators, face escalating complexities, uncertainties, and insecurities, making digital and ecological transitions more challenging than ever.

The X-Labs are based on the second pillar of the Horizon Europe program, "Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness". The X-Labs are divided into 6 modules, each allowing students to work on and address challenges related to the 6 clusters of the second pillar of the program. These are:

• Health
• Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society
• Civil Security for Society
• Digital, Industry and Space
• Climate, Energy and Mobility
• Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

The X-Labs immerse students in typical workplace dynamics and social norms by re-engineering the traditional "training on the job" model into a "job on the training" approach. This innovative framework includes:

• An experimental, problem-based teaching methodology that encourages innovative thinking.
• Active facilitation and mentorship provided by Luiss faculty members and professional mentors from partner organizations.
• Opportunities for students to design and develop a proof of concept, which they then present to an X-Labs jury consisting of top executives from partnering organizations.
• A professional work environment from day one, enabling students to develop and refine innovative solutions effectively.

This structured yet dynamic approach ensures that students not only learn theoretical knowledge but also apply their skills in practical, impactful ways.

Z-Labs are capstone modules educational path through which students supported by ad hoc experts can acquire or further develop frontier research capabilities, research and innovation methodologies, practices, and tools linked to particularly relevant cross-cutting competences and skills such as stakeholder engagement, technology transfer, quantitative analysis, and sustainable governance. They will be taught by Luiss younger Research Fellows and key-mentors for the technological, climate, societal, industrial, energy, just transition.

Z-Labs are addressed to the second-year students of MSc program, stimulating them to further develop key skills that they will apply towards empirical and experimental theses that they will have to submit for their master’s degree. The thesis, in fact, is a key learning component of the two-year MSc program. It is the final step of the Luiss Graduate School learning model by exposing students to cross-disciplinary outputs following their 2-years preparation. Theses can enrich the synergies between academic research and education with professional expertise and challenge-based approach to formulate interdisciplinary solutions' proposals to real-life issues. The final thesis highlights students' ability to formulate critical thinking. By prioritizing this cross-disciplinary, and tailoring the output on individual skills, we ensure that our students are prepared for future professional success in the global economy and for lifelong intellectual and personal development.

The MSc Strategic Management, Innovation & Sustainability implements the new Luiss Graduate School SMART educational model which relies upon five steppingstones:

• Student-centered
  Students develop skills, interests and aspirations through a tailored learning journey
• Multisciplinary
  Core courses and labs study and prototype disruptive solutions for the technological and ecological transitions by using multiple disciplines (mainly social sciences, but also evidence and solutions emerging from hard sciences).
• Academic Rigor
  Students acquire and strengthen their command of advanced knowledge and use it to work collaboratively with fellow students, external partners and Faculty members to apply this knowledge
• Readiness
  Students acquire career-ready experience, competences, mindset, also by working as professionals in innovation units integrated with partners to develop solutions as part of their courses/labs evaluation, internships and final projects.
• Tech – Enhanced
  the Luiss Graduate educational model strengthens the use of EdTech tools to favor the acquisition of frontier knowledge and competences in a dynamic and interactive context

Builds on problem-based learning models where students engage in self-directed work scenarios by giving them opportunity to focus on a significant challenge addressed to developing local solutions (Johnson, 2009).

Project-based learning (PBL) will lead to wide variation in the quality of project design and classroom implementation challenging problems or questions with a sustained inquiry (Buck Institute for Education 2015) as "we learn from reflecting on experience” (Dewey, 1933)

Deepening the relationship between science and society and reinforcing public confidence in science, the EU has been favouring an informed engagement of citizens and civil society on research and innovation matters by promoting science education, by making scientific knowledge more accessible, by developing responsible research and innovation agendas that meet citizens' and civil society's concerns and expectations

create a research and innovation friendly and open environment to stimulate students to simultaneously and sustainably start to tackle low economic growth, limited job creation and global challenges such as health, well-being, security, food, natural resources, climate and energy (European Commission, 2018). Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is a term used by the European Union's Framework Programmes to describe scientific research and technological development processes that take into account effects and potential impacts on the environment and society.

knowledge engine of a missions-oriented public innovation unit that will change policies (Mazzucato, 2018) which has inspired a new approach to target social, economic and environmental issues.

Building on the triple helix model of innovation, based on a relationship between university, industry, government and advanced the idea of a quintuple helix or pentahelix model of innovation (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 2000; Carayannis & Campbell, 2010; Barth, 2011; Brown, 2021)

the design principles of governance of the commons enucleated by Nobel laureate in Economics Elinor Ostrom (1990): cooperation and communities are key elements for long-endurability of innovation and sustainable development (Foster & Iaione, 2022)