How our PhD research developed into a business plan
By Praneeta Konduri and Nerea Arrarte Terreros
We are final-year PhD students at the Biomedical Engineering & Physics department of the Amsterdam UMC - location AMC and our research is focused on acute ischemic stroke. We are working on a European Union project along with top European universities, research centers and hospitals. We have always been in academia and never had the opportunity to learn about entrepreneurship. As we were heading towards the completion of our research, we wanted to explore alternatives and diversify into new fields. The course Entrepreneurship in Health and Life Sciences was advertised on the website of the Doctoral School and because we had positive experiences with their courses, we thought it was a great opportunity to explore the translation of our research into a business venture.
Course Entrepreneurship in Health and Life Sciences
At the start of this two-session course, we were organized into groups and asked to propose a business case. It was not necessary to have a pre-planned idea and several teams developed ideas during the course. However, we had decided to use this opportunity to explore the potential of the research developed within our EU partnership as a venture.
The lectures covered a wide range of topics on commercializing, generating and funding spin-offs. These lectures gave us much needed insight into familiar yet often unclear concepts like IP protection, patents and licensing. There were several intense brainstorming and interactive sessions to help with building our own business canvas model. We also learned how to sell our business idea. As scientists we are very familiar with delivering scientific presentations at our labs and conferences, but here we got excellent tips to successfully pitch our ideas and grasp the attention of the audience. Lastly, we were introduced to funding. Although this may seem like a known concept in science, we were taught about the challenges we can expect while applying to an investor for funds.
In addition to all these sessions, we interacted with an investor and learned about their considerations when approached by new start-ups. We also had the opportunity to meet and talk with founders of different start-ups that originally started in science and later moved to the entrepreneurial field. It was very encouraging to see how research from different backgrounds can be successfully translated into a company.
Pitching our project
After all the lectures, we had a pitch competition, where every team presented their work in front of a panel of experts. We are very happy that we, along with Yaw Kusi Mensah, won the pitch competition and were awarded 500 euros to further explore our venture.
The course instructors are always very open to meet us, discuss our ideas, and give advice, even after the course ended. They introduced us to people within iXA and ACE incubators and suggested potential venture challenges.
To conclude, the course was very informative and great fun! If you have the opportunity, do give it a try! And who knows, the next big company might be yours…
Did this article stirred your interest in the course Entrepreneurship in Health and Life Sciences? Find more information and sign up here.