Sciencepreneur - Curso de Empreendedorismo de base científica [Entrepreneurship and Science] - 1.ª edição [ESGOTADO]

WHAT IS IT?

Course Description

This course is designed for scientists seeking to broaden the idea of what innovation is and to know how to create value from their research activities. Particularly, this course aims to provide PhD students, young scientists and even more senior researchers with proper tools needed to put their research and ideas into a wider context, namely on the valorization of research results and their benefits to society. This will stimulate the transfer of scientific results to the general public, contributing to enhanced innovation and cooperation between academia, industry, investors and society as a whole.
Comprising theoretical lectures, case studies and discussion sessions with successful science-based entrepreneurs, investors and corporate CEOs, this course will provide insights into the process of knowledge-driven innovation and idea generation, besides creating awareness of the impact that scientists can have from an economical and societal perspective, as well as of protecting intellectual property rights.
This course also intends to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship at NOVA, although participants do not need to have any business idea to apply for it. Every session will have real case studies and classes will end with an invited speaker who will talk about her/his experience and reflect on the subject of the class.

Key Topics

• The Innovation and Value Creation Processes
• Evaluating Market Needs: Market Analysis and Segmentation
• Protecting your ideas: IP Protection, Patent strategy, Licensing
• Action for a better and more sustainable world: Creating Social Impact
• Business Development and Fundraising

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course the participants should be able to:
• Recognize the business opportunities that lie ahead their research activities.
• Use tools and frameworks to evaluate the commercial potential of their ideas and research.
• Understand how to protect their IP and create value out of it.
• Be more enabled to bring new ideas, patents, technologies or innovative services to the market.
• Understand what is needed to turn knowledge into a revenue stream or how to create social impact with their research.
• Know how to position and select the right market(s).
• Know what investors look for in a new venture.

WHO CAN APPLY?

PhD students at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa
PhD holders working at NOVA (Professors, researchers,...)

WHEN and WHERE?

1st edition: 15/01 - 25/03/2020 (Wednesdays) – 11 sessions from 5 PM to 8 PM | Venue: NOVA IMS | The entire course will be taught in English [NO VACANCIES]

Duration:

11 weeks | 1 module/week | 3h/module | 11 modules + evaluation

Course Sessions

Session Description

Note: Each lecture will last about 2h and each guest speaker will have about 1h to talk about his/her personal experience.

1. Getting Started: Science, Innovation and Value Creation (Isabel Rocha)
This session introduces the concepts of innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E), the different types of I&E and their importance as a survival and growth imperative in a knowledge-based economy. In this session, we will also explore the process by which entrepreneurs develop their thinking from science-based ideas to business development, while addressing key challenges and common pitfalls that need to be overcome, from early stage start-up to later stage scaling, illustrated by real-life examples.
Guest Speaker: José Epifânio da Franca (IST)

2. Evaluating Market Needs: Market Analysis and Segmentation (António Marinho Torres)
This session covers the concepts of primary market research, including how to define early assumptions and craft questions from these, and how to effectively do competitive market research and early market sizing. Topics such as consumer experience, segmentation and target, positioning and branding and marketing mix will also be addressed in this session.
Guest Speaker: Tiago Cunha Reis (Mater Dynamics)

3. Business Models for Innovation (António Marinho Torres)
The objective is to understand the process of turning a new technology into an in-market innovation through the development of a business model.
TOPICS:
• Invention: developing an application for a new technology
• Innovation: successfully bringing an invention to market
• Business model: specifying how a venture creates, accesses, delivers, and captures value
• Creating value: customer value proposition
• Accessing value: go-to-market
• Delivering value: technology & operations
• Capturing value: profit formula
Guest Speaker: Nuno Arantes-Oliveira (NOVA SBE/Rectory NOVA)

4. Creating and capturing value from technology (Fernanda Llussá)
In this session, we will study strategic challenges and opportunities that companies face in competing with their innovations. Students will learn how companies create and capture value, as we cover the concept of uniqueness and complementary assets, network externalities, open and closed standards, and how firms lock-in customers to their technology.
Guest Speaker: Pedro Saraiva (NOVA IMS)

5. Intellectual Property and Patents Protection (Susana Armário)
This session will address how to protect your ideas and why patent information is important for the scientific community, as well as how to best use it for promoting innovation and collaboration. Topics include:
• Intellectual property (IP) rights.
• Different types of protection.
• Patent strategy.
• Patent search.
Guest Speaker: Elvira Fortunato (Rectory NOVA) (to be confirmed)

6. Licensing, Regulation and Legal Considerations (Sérgio Coimbra Henriques)
This session covers several issues involved in management of IP and presents the legal context of licensing situations, regulatory issues and other legal considerations an entrepreneur should be aware of. From legal aspects related to the creation of the company to the importance of solid agreements with potential licensees or business partners to avoid traps and defend the company’s business, this session intends to provide the students with strategic decision making tools for exploring and developing knowledge-based ventures.
Guest Speaker: João Garcia da Fonseca (Biosurfit)

7. Product design, development and manufacturing (António Grilo)
In this session we will make reference to some of the stages and leading methodologies in new product development and design projects.
• Identification of the essential stages in new product development.
• Addressing the different steps that do integrate a new product development project.
• Getting acquainted with some of the tools that can provide appropriate support for carrying out each of the product development stages and steps.
• Optimization of the (product + manufacturing process) binomial.
Guest Speaker: Hugo Silva (Plux)

8. Venture Financing and Growth Management (Paulo Soares de Pinho)
This session covers the different stages of new venture evolution and the financing alternatives at each phase. It will discuss bootstrapping, relations with suppliers and clients and the management of working capital, strategic partnerships with corporate investors, leasing, factoring and bank financing, crowdfunding, business angels and venture capital. This session will also address several difficulties of managing growth and morphing the venture into a full-fledged, structured business corporation.
Guest Speaker: Stephan Morais (IndicoCapital)

9. Creating Social Impact (Miguel Alves Martins)
Topics: Social entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship, impact business models and organizational performance.
Guest Speaker: Hugo Menino Aguiar (to be confirmed)

10. Managing Teams (Pedro Neves)
This session covers the essential issues involved in creating, managing, evolving and motivating entrepreneurial teams
Guest Speaker: Hugo Oliveira (IndieCampers)

11. Mastering the Pitch (Nadim Habib)
This session will help participants understand how to build a solid pitch for their ventures, based on what investors often look for in a new venture. Understanding the market, how the business fits into the opportunities and how to build a solid case for the business, the team, the opportunity and the evolution and challenges over time are some of the aspects to account for when pitching
Guest Speaker: Jaime Jorge & João Caxaria (Codacy)

LECTURERS AND EVALUATION

Course Coordinators

Paulo Soares de Pinho (pjpinho@novasbe.pt)
Isabel Rocha (irocha@unl.pt)

Assessment Methodologies

Attendance: Students are expected to attend at least 80% of the modules in order to get the certification.

2 ECTS | 11 sessions | 56 hours

Main Bibliography

• Stokes, D., & Wilson, N. (2006). Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship (5th ed.). London: Thomson Learning.
• Article: “Pinpointing That Critical Entrepreneurial Spark” by Joe Hadzima, Boston Business Journal. Available at: http://www.mitef.org/s/1314/interior-2-col.aspx?sid=1314&gid=5&pgid=5818)
• Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y. (2010) Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. John Wiley and Sons.
• Hirsch, R.D., Peters, M.P., Shepherd, D.A. (2013). Entrepreneurship (9th ed.), Part 4, Chapter 11: Sources of capital (pp. 289-290). New York: McGraw Hill.
• The Technology Entrepreneurs Handbook. Nasdaq; Indian CEO High Tech Council, US Chamber of Commerce. Available at: http://nutsandbolts.mit.edu/resources/Guidebook.pdf
• Intellectual Property for Entrepreneurs - U.S Basics and Strategy (Video). Available at https://youtu.be/-pbz_MLngR8