From research to application
Overview of support on entrepreneurship and valorization at UGent
There are three main organisations active at Ghent University that support students and scientists on valorisation. They consist of:
- DO! (abbreviation of Durf Ondernemen/Dare to Undertake) - oriented to both students and researchers
- The central Tech Transfer Office
- The Industrial Research Fund - both oriented towards support of researchers that want to translate their research results to a specific application.
The provided support consists of:
- Courses that students and researchers can follow
- Coaching and training to provide them with the basics about creating a business and/or evaluating the market potential of the results generated with their research.
How to start?
- General info on how to start as entrepreneur (student, researcher): https://do.ugent.be/starten/
- Find and interact with other entrepreneurial minds via the DO! Discord channel
- Questions about entrepreneurship or valorization of research in animal health:
- innovation in animal health: Sven Arnouts
- innovation in aquaculture en blue life sciences: bluegent@ugent.be
- production of safe and healthy feed and food: food2know@ugent.be
DO!
DO! is the expertise center for entrepreneurship at Ghent University. This center is a point of contact for all Ghent University students and employees who think about entrepreneuring and forms a relay to further guidance with related services and programs. The goal of DO! is to inform all students and researchers correctly about the advantages and disadvantages of a career as an entrepreneur, to enable them to acquire as many entrepreneurial competencies as possible, and to optimally guide and support official student entrepreneurs in developing their company.
- Elective courses about entrepreneurship: https://do.ugent.be/aanbod/onderwijs/
- Advice and personal/business coaching (appointment-based): https://do.ugent.be/aanbod/coaching-advies/
- Research to market
- 'Research to Market' is a short program for researchers that teaches you to create value from your research and takes you on a journey to discover its market potential. It is the perfect first step if you are interested in entrepreneurship as a researcher.
- https://do.ugent.be/aanbod/programma/research-to-market/
- Expedition DO!
- Turn your idea into a business or scale your existing business (7-month coaching program)
- https://do.ugent.be/aanbod/programma/expedition-do/
- Networking: https://do.ugent.be/community/#events
IOF-TT and TechTransfer
The central interface service UGent TechTransfer and the more than 25 decentralized Business Development Centers support researchers in developing groundbreaking science to bring innovations to the market. Together they look for opportunities in your research, look at which valorization strategy is the best option, connect with mentors and advisors, ...
Supportive information on entrepreneuring
- list of funding options, networking platforms (to contact business developers, entrepreneurs, investors), legal and IP advice, courses and info sessions:
- https://www.ugent.be/techtransfer/nl/academici/ondernemen-aan-ugent/documentatie
Venture track
- The Ghent University Venture Track is a track for enterprising researchers who want to set up a Ghent University spin-off company. A UGent spin-off is a start-up based on research results from Ghent University.
- https://www.ugent.be/techtransfer/nl/academici/ondernemen-aan-ugent/venture-track.htm
Business development centers on animal health
- innovation in animal health: https://www.provaxs.com/
- innovation in aquaculture and blue life sciences: https://bluegent.ugent.be/
- production of safe and healthy feed and food: https://food2know.org/