ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the extent to which the three core missions of higher education institutions – teaching, research, and the so-called third mission – are located within the EU framework on service of general and economic interests, competitions and State aid. It maintains that teaching and fundamental research largely retain a non-economic character, whereas applied research and third-mission activities – such as knowledge and technology transfer or the commercialisation of results – are more readily characterised as economic. It further delineates the conditions in which the discipline governing services of general economic interest and the relevant EU competition rules apply.
