How much Startup is in your PhD?

April 26, 2023

Workshop for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) on April 20th

What is an entrepreneurial skillset? What makes innovation successful? What differences and commonalities are there between R&D activities in established companies and startup businesses? About 20 researchers from a vast variety of disciplines and locations joined the "Your Sciencepreneurship Career"-workshop on April 20th to find answers.

The one-day workshop was co-organized by the Elements4Founding project from the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Science (ENI) and the Young Entrepreneurs in Science Initiative by the Falling Walls Foundation. For the workshop, about 20 participants joined from the University of Stuttgart, Hohenheim, Karlsruhe, Esslingen, Tübingen and Konstanz spent the day at the [frei]raum to reflect upon their own skillset - as individuals, researchers and potential entrepreneurs.
 
In the afternoon, there was another highlight to the workshop: Three role models from the field of entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship talked about their experiences and career tracks. The following Q&A session enabled the workshop participants to openly ask questions and get honest answers about the benefits and challenges of each career path.
Where the two intrapreneurship role models from TRUMPF could point out the aspects of being an innovator within the stable environment of an established company, Claudiu Mortano, scientist and co-founder of the Stuttgart startup perosol added the perspective of being an independent driver of innovation and the importance of having an impact on the world.
 
We would like to thank all the participants, as well as the Young Entrepreneurs in Science Initiative, the Coaches from Berliner Ideenlabor and of course the role models for their inspiration and honesty!

Elements4Founding is a project of the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Science (ENI) at the University of Stuttgart. The aim of the project is to develop a holistic, sustainable approach to raising awareness and qualification of PhD and postdoctoral researchers for the topic of entrepreneurship over the project period between 2022 and 2024. Elements4Founding is funded and supported by the Vector Foundation.

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This image shows Melanie Minderjahn

Melanie Minderjahn

 

Research Associate, PR Manager

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