Twenty-seven BIST centre researchers learn about bringing science to business

By June 14, 2019January 7th, 2021BIST

The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), with its centres and ESADE Business School ran the 2019 “From Science to Business” course this month, with the goal of bringing more knowledge about technology transfer into the BIST research centres.

“It has opened a new professional avenue in front of my eyes. It has given me a short intro to the business world, leaving me with this urge to continue my training in this field.”

This is just one of many positive comments about the 2019 edition of the “From Science to Business” course that took place from May 27th to June 4th. With a welcome event at the BIST headquarters on the afternoon of the first day, followed by six days of learning at the ESADE Business School, the course provided attendees with an immersive experience into the world of bringing science to business.

The main objectives of the course were for participants to:

• Get acquainted with the business world and learn how companies create value for society and for themselves: providing more, better and healthier food, a cleaner, healthier and safer environment, and a longer and better quality of life and wealth.
• Understand the framework within which companies work and how they create value in a competitive environment.
• Get first-hand experience in the new venture creation process, and the role that science/technology plays in it.
• Understand that new venture creation needs scientists and engineers, and that entrepreneurship can be an attractive career path.

This year’s edition of the programme also included a new workshop where teams developed five real projects and interacted with an investor who helped them build pitches. Each group presented their pitches in front of the investor who was very impressed by the excellent final results.

Participants rated the course extremely highly, with an average overall evaluation of 4.67 out of 5.

Further specific feedback included the following:

“The programme met all my expectations. Although I had some previous experience in the field (as I could attend some other courses), the content was deeper, attractive, easy to follow and very well organized. For that reason, I would like to congratulate you for the whole course organization.”

“Exceeded my expectactions, and was a fruitful window to eventual business development in my career.”

“This programme was quite an eye-opening experience for me, since most of the time we barely get the chance to learn about the business world. This programme kind of opened a small window into the business world. It provided information about the business model/plan, and how to create startups in a general way. And during the group project, we got to practice the new things we just learned, which is super cool.”