BioBusiness Winter School

Many life scientists will make a switch to industry at some point in their career. But in the academic arena in which scientists learn their scientific skills, basic business aspects aren’t often elaborated upon while they are essential to succeed. The BioBusiness Winter School aims to fill the gap.

The BioBusiness Winter School is a three day online course for academics (MSc’s, PhD’s, postdocs) contemplating a career switch to industry, and young professionals in their first industry jobs. The programme is a balance between theoretical sessions focusing on key knowledge of main business topics such as Business Models, Partnerships, Venture Capital and Career Orientation, and interactive sessions with business leaders giving you their insights in the world of Life Sciences companies. By immersing yourself in the business aspects of Life Sciences we will introduce you to many subjects which will help you in your first jobs in industry.

If you would rather attend the 5-days in-person programme planned in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, visit the BioBusiness Summer School website.

The BioBusiness Summer School was set up in 2008 as an initiative of the Academic Medical Center Amsterdam. It was set up in close collaboration with several Life Sciences research institutes and companies in The Netherlands. Since 2011 BioBusiness Summer School has been organised by Hyphen Projects. In 2020 the BioBusiness Summer School moved online due to the COVID-19 crisis. The success of this online edition led us to develop the BioBusiness Winter School, a 3-days online programme, in addition to the in-person 5-days BioBusiness Summer School.

Course objectives
By the end of the course, participants will:

• Have a clear overview of the opportunities and challenges within the life sciences industry;
• Be able to discuss various types of business models in life sciences and link organisations to these business models;
• Have gained knowledge of available career opportunities in industry;
• Have gathered insights on the daily life of a leader in the Life Sciences sector, and what it takes to be successful;
• Have expanded their business network of like-minded international peers.

Participant profile
We introduced the BioBusiness Winter School, a fully online programme, for the first time in 2021. The participant statistics below are based on this first edition and will give you an understanding of the profile of past participants:

• PhD candidates (75%)
  
• Postdoctoral fellows (10%)
  
• Scientists interested in BioBusiness and/or starting their own company (5%)
  
• Scientists in their first industry jobs (7%)
  
• Masters' students (2%)
  

The programme focuses on medical biotechnology, but is also suitable for other life sciences fields such as plant biotechnology, food technology and industrial biotechnology. Considering the level of the course we recommend a minimum education level of BSc.