The Fondazione creates value for the university, for enterprise and for society. It promotes research and it runs innovation projects, marrying the capacity to do university research with the needs of enterprise as an enabling factor for creating strategic alliances and accessing public and private funding.

The Fondazione runs the Acceleratore d'Impresa (business incubator unit) at the Politecnico di Milano, encouraging innovative ideas and helping researchers to become business people. At the same time, it supports and operates the Joint Research Centres at the Politecnico di Milano, acting as an intelligent interface for creating consortia of enterprises that work on large research projects, so encouraging the competitive development of Italy's industrial fabric.

The Fondazione supports the training and development of human resources, acting as a conduit between the training needs of small and medium enterprise and the skills and expertise of the Politecnico, and it also works to improve the internationalisation of the university, with specific emphasis on a strategic presence in the bodies of the European Commission.