Innovation and entrepreneurship

Postgraduate course

Course description

Objectives and Content

Goal:
The main goal is to inspire and prepare medical students for potential careers as entrepreneurs.

Course content:
The proposed course is to inspire and equip the attendees (medical students) with enough skills and knowledge to broadly know how to commercialize their future research output in academia and in the clinic. This additional value creation is at the core of national directives promoted by the Ministry of Research and Education.

The course will A) introduce concepts of entrepreneurship, B) share the experiences of pharma and med tech founders, and C) include practical tasks in which students will be asked to develop a business idea and simulate the start-up of a company.

The theoretical background will partially be based on a program developed at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Former biomedical company founders include Vegard Tuseth, Nuheart; Aurora Martinez, Pluvia; James Lorens, BerGenBio; Kenneth Hugdahl , Nordic Neuro Lab; Jan Brøgger, Holberg EEG, have been invited to share and discuss their experiences in and motivations for starting a business. As final task, the students will be asked to develop a business idea (product, method or service) and to apply the theoretical concepts and practical recommendations from the business founders in developing the idea into a business plan required for company start-up.

Learning Outcomes

The students will understand the basic principles of entrepreneurship and innovation

The students will know how to transform an innovation idea into a product or service of commercial value by presenting a simulated investor pitch.

The students will become capable of incorporating innovation thinking into their daily work as researchers and clinicians and will be aware of potential commercial value of their future IP.

Required Previous Knowledge
None
Teaching and learning methods

The course will include 3 parts. Part 1 will entail a course introduction by the course administrators, inspirational presentations from former company founders, and examples for investor pitches of innovative product/service ideas.

Part 2 will be based on self-study following a program developed by the MIT Sloan School of Management (¿Disciplined Entrepreneurship by Bill Aulet¿). Course material will include textbook, workbook, and video instruction. Course instructors from the faculty will guide the students.

Part 3 will consist of the development of a concrete product or service idea and culminate in the presentation of a simulated investor pitch. An expert panel consisting of course administrators and the company founders will assess the preparations and give feedback.

Compulsory Assignments and Attendance
80% presence required. Participation in the pitch is mandatory.
Forms of Assessment

A panel will evaluate the quality of the «investor pitch».

The pitching group should present background for the chosen idea, target group for the idea, the solution, go to market strategy, financial considerations, the role of the team, competitive positioning and ask to the investors.

The student should participate in the pitch and will be evaluated based on the ability to engage, to convincingly present the product or idea and respond to questions after the pitch.