Have you ever thought about what it takes to transform your world-class research into an impactful start-up? Have you ever wondered how exactly to take your science from the lab to the first investment round? If you can say yes to one of these questions, then BII’s Summer School could be for you.
For the third year in a row, BioInnovation Institute and CBS Executive are collaborating to host the BII life science entrepreneurship Summer School in August 2023.
The Summer School aims to provide senior PhD students, postdocs and junior research group leaders with an extensive overview of the key aspects of commercialization of innovative projects within the fields of biopharma, health tech and bioindustrials. In the one-week program, participants will get a chance to put their learnings into practice through hands-on experience and meet mentors and investors from BII’s network.
“It’s crucial that the participants get hands-on experience through casework and pitching. That is what will allow us to fully guide the participants through the entire commercialization process which entails knowing what drives innovation, understanding intellectual property rights, being able to develop the key components of a business plan and give captivating investor pitches”, explains Chief Technology Officer at BII, Markus Herrgård who manages the BII Summer School in collaboration with CBS Executive.
World-class keynote speakers
Contributors from academia and industry will share their knowledge and expertise during the Summer School. Prof. Palle Høy Jakobsen, Author and Study Director at Copenhagen Business School, will provide valuable academic insights on the commercialization process and will drive the course during the whole week. The course will feature speakers from industry, including Pernille Winding Gojkovic, CEO at Høiberg, and BII, including Jens Nielsen, CEO.
“The program combines expertise from world-class lecturers with hands-on experience of BII’s team and high-level industry professionals, making it unique and compelling to entrepreneurial researchers”, says Markus Herrgård.
40 available spots
There are 40 available spots for the BII Summer School, which will be hosted at CBS Executive and BII facilities in central Copenhagen to show the participants the entrepreneurial environment of an incubator and introduce the participants to some of BII’s portfolio start-ups.
Applicants need to write a cover letter with a clear motivation for participation, an abstract describing the science that could potentially form the basis for a business case, a short CV and a recommendation letter from a supervisor, mentor, or head of a department and submit it no later than June 5th 2023.
As applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, BII recommends applying early to secure your spot.
What’s in it for you?
Once participants have finished the BII Summer School they will be capable of applying different commercialization models for different types of scientific innovations and be a strong dialogue partner to professionals in the translational research ecosystem such as technology transfer professionals, patent attorneys and investors.
“The BII summer School has an enjoyable and challenging program, that gave me a new appreciation for the synergies that can arise from early consideration for eventual commercialization of research results. The school sparked a change in my research groups’ approach when starting up new research projects. We now include several workshops on the specific ways in which a patient or health care professional would interact with our proposed solutions, and it increases the focus on reproducible and robust science with societal benefit,” says Ninna Stuck Rossen, an Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen and co-founder of Metsystem who joined BII’s Summer School in 2022.
BII expects to attract young researchers interested in entrepreneurship from local and foreign universities and provide them with a good understanding of how they can begin to incorporate the translational mindset into their research.
Learn more about and apply for the BII Summer School 2023.
Please note that the deadline for application is June 15th.