"Entrepreneurship champions" are being appointed at every college and university in Wales in a bid to drive up gross domestic product.
The champions, who are academics with industrial experience, will encourage students to start companies when they graduate as well as exploiting the knowledge and skills of academic staff.
Each institution will receive £60,000 a year to fund the posts at a senior level, and more than two-thirds of the champions are already in place. The scheme is funded by the Knowledge Exploitation Fund.
Pat Jones, director of the fund, said: "We are looking for people who have a bit of the entrepreneur and risk-taker in their make-up."
Dafydd Jones, recently appointed champion at Trinity College, Carmarthen, has worked at the college as a lecturer for six months and, before that, he worked in industry for ten years.
He said: "The primary aim of the scheme is to raise GDP in Wales, and one of the ways to do that is to get more people to set up new businesses."