Science to a business camp

During this summer, two of our FunGlass PhD. Students Abel W. Ourgessa and Susanta Sengupta were chosen to participate at Science to Business Camp organized by INOVATO in Smolenice. The event’s main goal was to show researchers and young entrepreneurs how to commercialize their research. Based on our student’s words, the event left a positive impression. The organizers mentored students on how to pitch and sell the ideas to potential investors.  The intention was also to create a bridge between research institutes and investors.

Here are the notes from our students about the event:

 We (Abel and Susanta) attended the science to a business camp in Smolenice from August 17-20/2022. During the summer camp experts gave lectures on ways of commercializing, steps in idea and incubation, how to create an investor pitch deck, how to create a financial plan, and how to obtain and protect intellectual property.   Furthermore, different success stories in science and entrepreneurship were presented.  There was a mentoring program on how to prepare a pitch deck and how we can sell our idea to a potential investor. Finally, during the investor matchmaking program, we discussed with investment company representatives and pitched our ideas to get funds and collaboration for future work.  In addition, we get to meet more than 30 passionate researchers and innovation enthusiasts and learn new things throughout our conversation. We also got a full guided tour of the historical Smolenice castle. We would like to thank the organizers from CLUSTER INOVATO for giving us this amazing experience. “  

The camp was co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

Abel W. Ourgessa & Susanta Sengupta