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Science to Business Welcome Event at BIST Headquarters
Science to Business Welcome Event at BIST Headquarters

BIST Science to Business Course

Immersing researchers in the new venture creation process

June 06, 2019

The From Science to Business course, created through a partnership between ICFO and ESADE Business School, has long been at the heart of the ICFO+ training and development program. Throughout its first five editions, the program evolved yearly to assure that the contents were suited to the needs of today’s researchers in an ever-changing business landscape.

Based on the success of the program, in 2016 the program moved under the BIST umbrella in order to expand its frontiers to incorporate researchers from the seven different research centers that comprise BIST. This year, the intensive program began on May 27 with a welcome reception for all participants and a round-table discussion at the BIST headquarters. Presential learning took place on ESADE’s Barcelona campus including instruction on innovation and strategy, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial finance. In addition, participants spent three full days in a hands-on entrepreneurial project workshop.

The program, with its strong emphasis on entrepreneurship, is aimed at BIST researchers including senior researchers, postdoctoral fellows and last year doctoral students. It focuses on helping professionals in academia get acquainted with the business world, increasing their understanding of how companies work and create value in a competitive environment. Through this six day program, BIST scientists become familiar with the new venture creation process and the role that science and technology plays in it.

ICFO postdoctoral researcher Yu Bi was one of five ICFOnians to take part in the 2019 edition. She enthusiastically recommended the course, reflecting, “As a researcher in academia, business used to be kind of the mysterious black box to me. This course gave me a great introduction to the business world. Within three intensive days, we got to learn how a company runs, survives and succeeds by employing innovation and strategy in its management and implementing a suitable business and financial plan. This course also tried to show us how to turn an idea into a start-up. I really liked the group project part, where we created a business plan to pitch our idea to an investor; we got to practice all the things we learned about business from the course.”

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