“The training helps us think from a customer point of view” FET2RIN Training Spring 2018 – 2nd workshop: The FET researchers exploring value proposition, IP strategy for R&D projects, crowdfunding, pitching http://www.fet2rin.com/ © FET2RIN 12–13 April 2018: Representatives of 5 FET projects (BREAKBEN, Cell Viewer, ICARUS, GreenFlash and CF-WEB), came together for a two-day FET2RIN training workshop at the EBN (ebn.eu) premises in Brussels. During the two days, the FET project participants worked with mentors and trainers to get a broader perspective on their research findings and their potential for commercialisation. They learnt about leveraging their projects’ customer expectations (value proposition), financing alternatives (crowdfunding), Intellectual Property (IP) and pitching. Value proposition design Value proposition is about creating products/services that meet customers' expectations, and one of the common mistakes entrepreneurs and researchers make is losing sight of customers’ needs by focusing too deeply on the product/service/research at hand. To avoid this mistake, the FET participants worked with their mentors, experts in business strategy and coaching, to analyse their project’s potential customer market and its expectations. IP strategy and commercialisation options for R&D projects Which IP aspects do FET participants need to take into account for successful exploitation of their research results? What are the important aspects to take into consideration when building an R&D consortium? FET participants learnt about these key topics from FET2RIN trainer Elio de Tulio, an attorney and IP specialist, and FET2RIN mentors. Crowdfunding for R&D projects Crowdfunding is a viable financing alternative for R&D projects such as the FET ones, so both the second and third workshop explore this topic in-depth. Natalie Ann Jonk, founder of CrowdScience (https://crowd.science/) a crowdfunding platform specialsing in crowdfunding for R&D projects, and Francesca Passeri from European Crowdfunding Network (http://eurocrowd.org/) talked about crowdfunding and how it can be best used to finance R&D projects. As a practical exercise, the FET participants had to think of the crowdfunding platform that would best suit their needs. Intro to pitching As a preparation for the final workshop where the FET participants will pitch in front of investors, Dario Mazzella from META Group (http://www.meta-group.com) gave an introduction to the art of pitching - how to pitch your R&D projects to an external audience? What have participants said about the training? “The training is very useful as it allows us to think more from a customer point of view and not solely the technical one, which is the usual case for us. ” Martin Znidarsic, CF Web (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/208432_en.html) This was the second workshop of the training with the final one taking place 17–18 May at the EBN premises in Brussels when the FET participants will learn more about crowdfunding and pitch in front of investors and business angels. In the meantime, follow us on Twitter (@Fet2Rin) and Facebook (@fet2rin)! Keywords fet, crowdfunding, businesstraining, coaching, mentoring, fet2rin, researchers, trainers, IP Countries Belgium
