Summary
Spain is one of the European countries with highest rates of unemployment. With the objective of reducing unemployment, the Spanish Government has passed new laws intended to facilitate and promote entrepreneurship. However, many of these entrepreneurial initiatives are simply the result of attempts by people to find new subsistence means, rather than proper enterprises adding value. On the other hand, results of DISCO Project (see http://www.discovering-archaeologists.eu/) reveal the difficult situation that the archaeological sector is undergoing in Europe since the beginnings of the economic crisis. In the Spanish case, the crisis is devastating given the significance that rescue archaeology had acquired in relation to its tight connection with the building sector. Therefore, it seems necessary to rethink archaeological activity in order to find alternative scenarios, as proposed by the NEARCH project (http://www.nearch.eu/).This paper reflects on the potential to create new business opportunities drawing on the knowledge generated by public research organizations, promoting entrepreneurial initiatives that ensure that the new company creates and adds value, innovating (although not necessarily through technology), creating and promoting social participation, and fostering new and sustainable business models and forms of financing themselves. This position can be criticized by questioning whether it is legitimate to promote entrepreneurship mentalities in a sector whose resources are public, i.e., heritage. However, we strongly believe that public institutions should try to address this issue by providing reflexive solutions to social problems, and these entrepreneurial initiatives can contribute to the necessary redefinition of current archaeological activity.