Sarah Tung is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), within the Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences (IE&IS) and the Innovation, Technology Entrepreneurship & Marketing (ITEM) group. Her research lies at the intersection of innovation economics, entrepreneurship, and science–industry relations, with a specific focus on the organizations and support structures that enable knowledge transfer and academic entrepreneurship. Building on her PhD work on innovation intermediary organizations, she examines how intermediary actors (e.g., technology transfer offices, incubators, and regional support organizations) shape entrepreneurial journeys and innovation ecosystems.

She collaborates closely with The Gate (TU/e’s Knowledge Transfer Office) on an 18-month project investigating how academic and student entrepreneurs mobilize resources and navigate support ecosystems. Her work combines qualitative interviews with ecosystem-level analysis to understand entrepreneurs’ needs and the challenges they face across the different phases of venture creation. In parallel, she contributes to the co-design and development of a digital platform aimed at providing practical guidance and tools for early-stage founders.

Sarah Tung holds a PhD in Economics (2020–2024) from the University of Strasbourg (BETA, UMR 7522), completed in co-supervision with the Université Catholique de Lille. Her doctoral research examined the functions, evolution and skills of science–industry intermediary organizations, combining historical, qualitative and quantitative approaches. This work has led to several ongoing publication projects and conference presentations.

She previously completed a Master’s degree in Economic Analysis and Policy (2018–2020) at the University of Strasbourg, specializing in Statistics and Econometrics. Her Master’s research thesis explored the role of the “middleground” in innovation ecosystem orchestation, based on the case of Eurasanté, work that led to a first academic publication in Technological Forecasting & Social Change (2020). During her Master’s studies, she participated in two Erasmus exchanges, at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and at the Friedrich–Alexander University of Erlangen–Nuremberg. She completed a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Management (2017–2018) while simultaneously pursuing the Magistère in Economics (2017–2020), a selective research-intensive programme at the University of Strasbourg.