Course Objective

After the successful completion of this course, the student will, among
others:
- Be familiar with an innovation outlook on entrepreneurship;
- Be aware that value-adding opportunities not only contain
financial aspects but also social and ecological aspects (sustainable
entrepreneurship);
- Have developed insight into, and actual developed, one’s own
enterprising competencies;
- Have learned about the processes involved in the recognition and
exploitation of opportunities, about creating societal value and about
the nature and role of networks;
- Have gained the ability to write a feasibility plan on how to
bring an innovation to the market;
- Have gained knowledge of different entrepreneurial processes and the
importance of valorization of scientific findings and business ideas for
a knowledge-based economy.

Course Content

Entrepreneurship, defined here as ‘creation, discovery and exploitation
of value-adding opportunities’, is an increasingly important subject for
students and professionals, also in the discipline of physics. The
growing complexity and accelerating dynamics of the technologies that
lie behind life sciences pre-clinical studies, medical treatments,
alternative and sustainable energy sources, innovative materials, micro-
and nanodevices, and complex research projects in the high energy
particle physics and astrophysics sectors often urge professionals to
think, act, and communicate in an entrepreneurial way. In this course,
students will learn the ropes of this emerging field via three
educational pillars:

1) Students will be learning modern theories of entrepreneurship, with
focus on the relationship between entrepreneurship and innovation,
sustainable entrepreneurship, life cycle of the firm, valorization of
knowledge, entrepreneurial competences;

2) They will familiarize with a set of entrepreneurial soft skills,
which they will put into practice when they will be asked to approach
different stakeholders to further their projects to gain commitments or
to obtain important information. For this purpose, the students will
receive training in taking action, networking and network utilization,
and influence processes;

3) They will be introduced to business planning. For this purpose, the
students, supported by guest lecturers and coaching sessions, will write
(in small groups) a Business Model Canvas (BMC 3.0) around an innovative
idea that they deem interesting for entrance into the market.

All projects and initiatives will of course revolve around innovative
ideas emerging from physics research activities.

Teaching Methods

Theory classes, in class simulations, case study, and guest lectures.

Method of Assessment

The final grade will be determined as follows, unless stated otherwise n
the first lecture:
10% Case analysis
40% Own business case
50% Exam

Literature

A complete list of peer reviewed papers will be provided at the start of
the course. Students are also encouraged to download the following book
(free access if downloaded via the VU Library):
D. Iannuzzi, "Entrepreneurship for Physicists: a Practical Guide to Move
Inventions from University to Market." (IoP, 2017)