"The aim of the VICO project is to assess the impact of Venture Capital and Private Equity (VC/PE) financing on the economic performance of European innovative entrepreneurial ventures as they are reflected by their innovation output, employment, growth, and competitiveness, and the role VC/PE investors play in helping these firms bridge their resource and competence gap beyond the provision of financing. Particular attention will be devoted to the institutional variety of VC/PE investors in Europe. We will consider factors affecting both the demand for and the supply of VC/PE financing, at micro and macro level. In particular, we will analyze how the effects of VC/PE financing on the economic performance of portfolio companies are moderated by i) the characteristics of the investor, ii) the characteristics of invested firms, and iii) the characteristics of the business and institutional environment in which firms operate. In addition, we will examine specific open issues that play a crucial role for the development of the VC/PE sector in Europe, namely: i) the design of a mix of multi-level policy schemes targeting seed and pre-seed capital; ii) exit mechanisms for VC/PE investors; and iii) the European integration of the VC/PE sector and the internationalization of VC/PE investors. The project will benefit from a unique combination of qualitative (survey analyses and case studies) and quantitative empirical methodologies. As to these latter, the project will build and use a micro¯o cross-country panel type dataset with a rather long longitudinal dimension and wide coverage of EU countries so as to overcome some of the key weaknesses of the extant empirical literature. The consortium is a blend of well known scientists from different disciplines (i.e. finance, innovation economics, entrepreneurship, management, policy science). Several of them have already collaborated in EU promoted research projects (such as the VCFUN project promoted by the PRIME NoE)."