Doctoral students are invited to attend the course “Research based Entrepreneurship”

In the upcoming spring semester, for the first time, an elective course titled “Research based Entrepreneurship” will be offered specifically for doctoral students. The course aims to provide doctoral students with basic knowledge of entrepreneurship. Doctoral students from all programmes are welcome, regardless of whether they have a specific idea to focus on for business development during the course or not. 

According to Tõnu Esko, Vice Rector for Development at the University of Tartu and the course author and lecturer, developing research discoveries into services and products necessary for society is one of the fastest ways to apply the results of scientific research for the benefit of society. 

“Every scientist should think about the practical application of their research. This course offers doctoral students the opportunity to contemplate this,” Esko explained. “It would be really cool if someone started a company based on what they learned in this course. In any case, I am sure that the doctoral students who complete the course will view their field of research with a completely new perspective and be ready to pursue entrepreneurship in the future,” Esko added. 

The course is structured like a product development process, during which students learn to understand potential customers, analyse market size and potential, develop a business plan, and devise an intellectual property strategy. In collaboration with Estonia’s leading venture capital fund, Specialist VC, doctoral students will get an overview of the principles of involving early-stage investors. 

The course runs from 5 March to 11 April and awards 2 credits to students. During weekly seminars, founders of successful deep tech companies will discuss their biggest lessons and challenges. In addition, the business models of several international deep tech companies will be analysed during the course to learn from their success stories. 

Registration for the course is available in the Study Information System (LTGI.00.005). The course is open to all doctoral students at the University of Tartu.