WaterCampus and the NEW-project offer a four-session programme into entrepreneurial beginnings that allows PhD students to get a glimpse of the business world and vice versa.
Winners of the Business Development Course 2022 – PhD candidate Edwin Ross & MSc student sustainable entrepreneurship Stijn Kromwijk – about their experience of the programme: “this is not your average course; it has been a great experience with real possibilities, shedding a different light and practical insight. We are now even considering how to take our potential business one step further.”
The experience
“I think Marco de Graaff’s explanation of the Business Development Course is quite an accurate one: ‘a pressure cooker with scientists and entrepreneurs students that produces and presents a practical business plan in a mere four days’,” explains Kromwijk. “This course takes you much further and raises another perspective from what we learned in our courses. Ross adds: “there was just such a good eye for practicality and lots of possibilities to talk to water entrepreneurs. It has given me insight into the real world’s implication of my research.”
Kromwijk and Ross spend four intensive sessions designing a plan to market Ross’s PhD research topic – a chlorate sensor that can shed light on the formation of dangerous particles in water cleaning applications. “I knew nothing about the research of Edwin, but during the course I quickly learned,” Stijn explains. “It allowed for an application of the knowledge I gained during my Masters’, which all of the sudden was way more real. Edwin: “I was happily surprised to see my PhD project in a different light; to develop a business plan from my research is something I had never given a second thought on before.”
The victory
The course is all about bridging the gaps between academic research and its market value. “The first two days were about exploring the available markets and contained lots of brainstorming,” Ross says. Kromwijk smilingly adds: “The first day was mostly Edwin explaining his research to me, only after that my expertise came into play. On day three, we got some professional feedback, that much improved our strategy, and on the fourth day, we got a chance to present our plan to a panel of successful water entrepreneurs. An intensive but rewarding experience.”
So rewarding in fact, that the men won € 2.500 to further develop the idea with support of the WaterCampus partners “It is the kind of money that makes us think of continuing our idea,” Kromwijk tells, “or at least do a continuation of this course.” Ross: “And it feels like we could too. The course has not only been a way for me to orient myself in the business world, but it has also taught us how we found a business ourselves.”
What is the secret to winning? The team: “We made the clearest plan. We had a great level of detail on the market value and were well prepared on how to present it to the market. Having said that, the jury – consisting of professional water entrepreneurs – said it was a close call between us and another one of the eight groups.”
“The Business Development course was great fun. For anyone who is still in doubt whether to follow the course or not: do it. If you have any interest in an entrepreneurial adventure, this is the place to orient yourself on business or the current scientific solution to all sorts of problems. Just do it.”
WaterCampus and the NEW-project offer a four-session programme into entrepreneurial beginnings that allows PhD students to get a glimpse of the business world and vice versa.
