A Spin-Off from Physics Education Research

The need for an effective communication between scientific research and society is widely known to the broadest scientific community, and the sad times we are living in make it even clearer. At the same time, the need of establishing long-term structural connections between the worlds of research and that of education and scientific communication can open the way to new market opportunities. This led us to develop a cooperative society, academic spinoff of university of Calabria, named "Missione al Cubo" (mission cubed), evocative of both the "third mission" and the "cubes", the buildings of University of Calabria. The cooperative aims at operating in the market sectors at the interface between research and society. In this interface region, the spinoff will interact on one side with universities and research centers developing educational, cultural and entertainment activities directly derived from their scientific research conducted. On the other side of the interface, the cooperative will distribute the products and services generated by the interaction with research environments in a large market, consisting of schools of all levels, local administrations, museums, science communication centers. We believe that there is a large market space for a whole series of products and services conceived to create a solid and lasting interface between scientific research and the public, at both the local and global level. This market space can offer interesting opportunities of self-entrepreneurship for young physicists with strong communication skills and rich research experience. [For the full proceedings, see ED626668.]