YES: Strengthening the Founding Spirit in Potsdam – Sciencepreneurship Workshop Creates New Perspectives for Researchers
YES, Berlin – On June 26 and 27, 2024, Potsdam once again became the center of innovation with the annual “From PhD to Innovator” workshop. The two-day event, organized by Young Entrepreneurs in Science in collaboration with the University of Potsdam and other partner institutions, aimed to ignite the entrepreneurial potential within academic research.
The Startup Service of the University of Potsdam welcomed doctoral candidates, postdocs, and academic staff from various disciplines to its co-working space. To ensure broad accessibility, the event was free of charge with the support of the BMBF and required no prior entrepreneurial knowledge. The special feature of the workshop was its innovative approach to fostering an entrepreneurial mindset among scientists. Young Entrepreneurs in Science promotes interdisciplinary collaboration and offers training in startup concepts to empower participants to explore entrepreneurial opportunities.
On the first day of the workshop, participants were introduced to entrepreneurship, discovered their entrepreneurial strengths, and exchanged ideas with experienced sciencepreneurship role models. The second day focused on the design thinking process, where they applied design thinking principles to refine ideas and create prototypes, which were then presented.
Valeria Ruf, Head of Young Entrepreneurs in Science, stated, “Our workshop in Potsdam demonstrates how interdisciplinary collaboration fosters innovation and can turn researchers into sciencepreneurs.”
“We are proud to collaborate with Young Entrepreneurs in Science to promote an entrepreneurial mindset among our doctoral candidates and postdocs. This workshop is a crucial step in integrating entrepreneurial thinking and action into academic practice,” emphasized the Startup Service team.
Strong Commitment to Promoting Sciencepreneurship
The University of Potsdam has shown a strong commitment to promoting sciencepreneurship. The university supports innovations through the central institution Potsdam Transfer, which enabled 36 startups last year and manages a total of 70 EXIST startup grants. Additionally, the University of Potsdam is involved in 36 active patent projects, underscoring its commitment to entrepreneurial success and scientific advancement. The workshop by Young Entrepreneurs in Science, along with 14 other international partnerships in the sciencepreneurship field, demonstrated this commitment impressively.
The workshop was supported by the University of Potsdam, the Universitat Jaume I, the Potsdam Science Park, the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), the Technical University of Brandenburg, the Hasso Plattner Institute School of Entrepreneurship, and the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg. It showcased a collective effort to translate academic research into practical applications.
For more information on upcoming workshops and participation, please visit Young Entrepreneurs in Science.
About Young Entrepreneurs in Science
Young Entrepreneurs in Science was founded in 2018 to raise awareness of an entrepreneurial mindset within research. Through a series of carefully designed workshops on entrepreneurial skills and creativity methods, tailored for PhD students and postdocs, Young Entrepreneurs in Science aims to encourage researchers to explore alternative career paths as entrepreneurs and thus drive a paradigm shift in science. By imparting entrepreneurial know-how through sixteen different workshop modules, Young Entrepreneurs in Science has conducted nearly 250 workshops to date and reached over 4,000 participants from more than 110 partner universities and research centers, empowering scientists to take the leap into becoming “Sciencepreneurs” (entrepreneurs from science).
Website youngentrepreneursinscience.com
Contact
Dilara Ekinci
Press Officer
Young Entrepreneurs in Science
dilara.ekinci@falling-walls.com