2009 Bio-entrepreneur School maintains the standard

The 2009 QED Bio-Entrepreneur School has continued the tradition of success of the previous two Schools. The first stage of the exercise, promotion of the School, was particularly effective resulting in 67 high quality applications for the 30 places on the School. In the second stage, delivery of the school, all the delegates rated the Bio-Entrepreneur School very highly with every aspect of delivery of the School being rated at over 90% by the delegates and the overall score being 93%.

We are particularly pleased that throughout the three days delegate feedback showed consistently high satisfaction. There were no troughs at all as delegates were engaged by the School from beginning to end.

Feedback from delegates included the following comments:

• A concise course in exploiting the commercialized aspects of a career in science
• Ideal intro to business mindset for scientists
• Wonderful experience. Very inspiring
• Very interesting and practical
• Empowering
• A fantastic introduction to becoming a bio –science entrepreneur
• Invaluable
• Hard work but a very worthwhile experience – thank you
• Good brush up on existing knowledge and useful personal/ free advise from service providers
• An exciting experience
• Was good fun, I felt I learned a lot that will help me (hopefully) in the future
• Very intense, but rewarding experience, open minder in many senses
• Exceed any expectations
• I have started to understand how to think in the business network
• Worthwhile, learning experience
• Very lucky to have been given a place
• Extremely rewarding, acquired new skills altered outlook from service to business
• Extremely instructive, mind opening and dare I say life changing experience
• Brilliant ideas and prospectus was thought provoking

Feedback from sponsors of the Bio-Entrepreneur School was equally positive, highlighting the high quality of delegates on the programme and the good quality of the programme delivered. Many of the sponsors have been on board for all three years of the School and have commented on the momentum that the Schools have now established. Councillor Chapman, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Economic Development & Skills, Nottingham City Council is typical when he says:
“Colleagues who met with some of the School’s students were impressed by how positive and imaginative the students were. The School has gained significant momentum over recent years and we are proud to be a sponsor. This kind of activity is hugely beneficial for Nottingham.”

What’s next?

Following the growing success of the Bio-Entrepreneur School and the value it is adding to the early stages of the commercialisation and development of new life science related businesses we have already started working on plans for next year’s School and beyond. If you have any suggestions on how you could support and contribute to future Schools then please don’t hesitate to contact Martijn Mugge on martijn@qedconsulting.co.uk. We look forward to hearing from you.