“FET2RIN training was enlightening”!
15–16 March 2018: Representatives of 5 FET (projects (BREAKBEN, Cell Viewer, ICARUS, CF-WEB, and GreenFlash), came together for a two-day FET2RIN training workshop at the EBN (ebn.eu) premises in Brussels. With the help of trainers and mentors, the FET researchers looked at their research from a different angle, exploring essential business concepts such as Customer development, defining a Unique value proposition, building a Minimum Viable Product, and designing an effective IP strategy for R&D consortia. After each concept was covered by a trainer, the researchers worked with their mentors, experienced business consultants and coaches, to test its applicability on their research and to validate hypothesis – who are their project’s early adopters, what is their project’s unique value proposition and how they can effectively protect intellectual property of their (shared) research results? One of the main topics was how to build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), a methodology used to test different hypothesis with early adopters with the minimum resources used in terms of time and money. As an interactive way to test the concept, the FET researchers used Javelin board, a process board used to test hypothesis, to collect early adopters’ feedback and to track MVP's impact while experimenting with it. On the second day, FET researchers used the Lean Canvas to draft a sustainable business model for their project, focusing on the hypothesis and the early adopters identified the day before. What did the participants say about the workshop? “Working with a mentor coming from a different field was enlightening for me. We, scientists, need someone to pose intelligent questions as we are often too deep in our research and we don’t see the big picture.” Natalia Dave Coll, Cell Viewer project “The training has helped me to explore our potential customers in aerospace and aeronautical industry and to understand basis of a good IP agreement.” Gloria Rodríguez Lepe, ICARUS project This was the first workshop of the training with the next one taking place 12–13 April at the EBN premises in Brussels. The FET researchers will learn more about lean canvas, crowdfunding to finance their projects, different revenue models, and building products that fit customers’ needs. In the meantime, follow us on Twitter (@Fet2Rin), Facebook (@fet2rin), and share and like our video on Youtube (we need your help to win a competition)! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdZXNdjYVQo http://www.fet2rin.com/
Keywords
fet, mentoring, coaching, researchers, fet2rin, leanapproach, MVP
Countries
Belgium