School on Science Management for Scientists and Engineers
July 9th -20th 2018
The School on Science Management for Scientist and Engineers is the place where you can fill the gap between your academic path and the demands of the present job market.
Learn how to transfer your research results in a commerciable product and become an entrepreneur.
Develop a competency framework to think outside the box
Join us in a former Lifelong Learning Program funded by the European Commission, become part of an international network, and discover in an international enviroment that is possible to study hard and have fun!!
University meets the Market
About SoSMSE
We look forward to welcoming you to our Summer School in Genoa
Sandrine Lacombe, Mario Rocca, Fabrizio Barberis
The school has come to its tenth edition, having started in 2009 as a Lifelong Learning Programme in the Erasmus Programme (2009-2014), now continuing in a self financed mode, as envisaged by the European Commission (EC).
SoSMSE deals with the necessity to fill the gap between the scientific and technical knowledge acquired by the students at the University, on the one hand, and the requests they will have to face in their work career either in academic institutions or industry, on the other hand: in other words with the necessity to develop entrepreneurship. This last issue continues to be a pivotal point for the EC, which has recently launched The Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan.
To this goal the students will attend to lectures in Economy Management, Project Management, Communication and Pitching, Technology Valorisation, Risk Capital and Funding, Patent Law, New Methods for Information and Communication, and Personal Professional Project.
All the lecturers are scientists and engineers who have learned the subject they teach hands-on, in years of experience, which gives a uniquely focussed perspective to their lectures.
The School
The objectives of the School are giving to the students the skills to:
write a research project and expose and defend it in front of a jury;
understand how to transfer laboratory results to industry having in view the market needs and the necessity to form a workgroup
understand what is the intellectual property and how to protect it while collaborating with partners.
All the lectures and seminars will be given in English by professors and industry professionals, coming from four different countries.
The present edition of SoSMSE is open to candidates with at least a bachelor degree of any university course, ranging form technical and scientific to humanistic and social school. Attendance is limited to 60 students
The school grants 5 ECTS and is devised as an Intensive Program which exposes students to a rather demanding schedule, comprising frontal lectures, group work, and seminars. Moreover, a team bonding activity will take place on the middle Sunday.
However, these efforts will be requited in various ways, for example in terms of soft skills acquired by the students by the end of the courses.
Furthermore, internationality and heterogeneity of the students will entail confronting different approaches to studying and working, broadening the participants’ minds.
The final examination consists in the presentation in front of a jury of the personal professional project which the candidates will prepare utilizing what they’ve learned in the courses. Each candidate will receive a diploma mentioning the mark obtained.
The Courses
Communication
The Communication course focuses on Pitching Science and Technology for Business, and comprises both lectures and tutorial sessions, as outlined below.
1 – Lectures
- How to turn Science and Technology into Business: from idea to business concept
- Business Model (CANVAS)
- Value Proposition
- Market/Client Segments
- Pitching Science and Technology for Target Audiences:
- Investors
- Business Partners
- Potential Customers
- Media & Press
2 – Tutorial Sessions
- Pitch Presentation: structure and presentation skills
- Case study: Scientific paper about a material/idea which can be converted into a business product/idea
- Pitching time
Member of REQUIMTE-LAQV (Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry), the largest network in Chemistry and Technology in Portugal, scientific coordinator of the research group Catalysis & Functional and Smart Materials, coordinator/team member of several national projects, participates in COST action CM1203 and in several projects with Portuguese industry companies. She also participated in several national and international evaluation panels.
She attended COHITEC 2013 training program at Porto Business School (https://www.actbycotec.com/en/cohitec.127.html), sponsored by COTEC Portugal in collaboration with North Carolina University, USA, with the project CATALVALOR: a catalyst for change. This project was the winner, in the category Industry, in the most important national entrepreneurship competition in Portugal, Acredita Portugal 2015, in which it was distinguished among more than 18,000 candidates. Inserted in this entrepreneurship competition, CATALVALOR project was also one of the three finalists in Brisa Mobilidade award.
She is the co-founder and CEO of Innovcat Ldt (March 2015, www.innovcat.pt), a technology-based UP spin-off, which aims to carry out research & development, production and commercialization of solid catalysts and innovative functional materials for industrial applications.
Economy Management
The objective of this lecture is to give the students a global vision of the company and its environment: what the goals are, and how the strategies of the companies and the economic environment are linked together.
As to management, concepts such as the tasks of a manager, leadership, skills required, and work specificities will be introduced, using Project Management terminology and methodology.
A special emphasis will be given to the importance of communication in a multicultural environment, to the bases of cultural differences, and to the intercultural management.
New Technology for Information and Communication
The aim of the course is to provide the participants with the necessary tools on the new technologies of information and communication to help them in their everyday tasks as researchers.
The courses will focus on the following topics:
Basic introduction to computer hardware and software: Here the goal is to be able to identify a simple problem and explain it, in adequate terms, to the IT technician in order to solve your problem in a short period of time. Also we will answer the fundamental question: what software should I use for a specific task?
Templates (word and PowerPoint): We will learn how to create, modify and use a template in order to draft a paper, prepare a poster and make a PowerPoint presentation. Tips will be given for making an enticing PowerPoint presentation.
References manager: drafting a paper with many references could be tricky. Here we will define our needs in terms of references manager.
Social networks and e-reputation: We will see the difference between the professional network and facebook and twitter.
An overview of project management tools will be provided (Gantt diagrams, Web calendar, file sharing and web search).
Patent Law
The protection and valorisation of technological and commercial assets of a company is essential.
The technological asset of a company is the set of knowledge for product manufacturing (R&D included), the production processes, and the service performance.
The main tool to protect and increase the value of the technological assets of a company is the patent.
The commercial asset of a company includes, among the others, the “company name” and the relevant “product or service names” or “logos”, which are used every day to promote the company in the market. The main tool to enhance such a commercial asset is the trademark.
The portfolio of patents, trademarks and other assets, if any, constitute the Intellectual Property asset of a company. Especially in the technological advanced fields, such a portfolio may constitute one of the most important and economic “intangible assets” of a company. Consequently, it is essential to take care of it more and more.
Personal Professional Project
The course aims at the improvement of your self-knowledge, of your strategy to learn more about the international job market and finally find the right approach to optimize your professional project. It is based on group work.
You will improve your skills in analyzing and presenting in short time knowledge, skills, know-how of yourself and/or the others. Who am I? What do I search? Do I have the qualifications or experience ad hoc?
The lecture is organized as follows:
1. Assessment of competence (short oral presentations);
2. Preparation of CV, letter of motivation, interview of professionals (personal work);
3. Report of the PPP through poster or powerpoint presentation.
Prof. Sandrine Lacombe obtained a Phd in Sciences from Université Paris-Sud (France). She was a post-doctoral fellow of G. Ertl (Nobel Prize) at Fritz-Haber Institut der Max Planck Gesellschaft (Berlin, Germany).
She is the head of a research team at Institute of Molecular Sciences Orsay (Univ. Paris-Sud / CNRS/France). She is the coordinator of two major European projects: the SERP+ Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree SERP+ and of the Marie Curie ITN programme ARGENT. She has a strong experience of training and recruiting students, PhDs, junior scientists and managers. Since 2016, she is Vice-President of International Affairs of Université Paris-Sud.
Project Management
The course aims at introducing elements of methodology in managing and planning complex applied research projects, in which many peoples are involved and several activities have to be identified, evaluated, planned and controlled for their effective execution.
The course is organized in three distinct phases.
In the first one elements on the theory of project management, in terms of planning, controlling and reporting, are given by a classical lecture.
Then, in the second phase, an example of practical application is illustrated to the students by the teacher.
In the last phase, students will be divided in groups and will apply themselves the methodology to case studies, suitable for a classroom coming out from different scientific backgrounds.
He has been appointed for a long time as Research Director of Elsag-Bailey, one of the most advanced Hi Thech companies in Italy and USA. His experience spans many fields in the Advanced Industrial Automation and Artificial Intelligence and Parallel Processing, as well as the area of Research Management of very large innovative projects.
He has been the Director of the Institute for Scientific and Technological Research (IRST) in Trento, Italy, where he leaded several hundreds of researchers in Microelectronics and Artificial Intelligence areas.
He has been professor in Cybernetics at the Physics Department of Genoa and Trento Universities, as well as in many Research Management courses in Europe, at Genoa University and at SISSA Institute in Trieste, Italy.
He is author of more than 50 scientific papers and got four international industrial patents.
Risk capital and funding
A short survey concerning the different typologies of financial funds able to fit with the Innovation need will be given.
Moving from seed capital up to venture and equity through crowdfunding, the lesson will be focused on the different capital need that a scientist has to face when moves from the lab toward a business application of his/her scientific knowledge.
The talk will be also strictly connected to the awareness of the real or intangible assets that a “newco” may rely on as like to the basic features to introduce a proposal to the Financial Community.
Genoa (UNIGE), Italy, where he teaches Material Science, Composite Materials for Bioapplications, Tissue Mechanics and Biomaterials Lab at the Biomedical Engineering School (former Engineering Faculty) and at the Science School (former Physics Faculty).
His activity is mostly dedicated to Biomaterials for internal Prosthesis, composite materials and device testing with destructive and nondestructive technics.
He is Vice Coordinator of the Research and Technology Transfer Commission of University of
Genoa, and collaborates with financing platforms such as Equity, Venture Capital and Business Angels. He teaches in, and joins the Board of, several Master and Specialization Schools dedicated to connect Technology and Business.
Technology Valorization
The course will address the issues of transferring scientific and technological results from lab-scale to the market.
Starting from understanding the concepts of innovation, we will introduce the driving forces that enable a successful adoption of a technology into products and services delivered to final customers. Specifically, will describe the processes of understanding the gap between technology and customers’ needs and present some useful tools to support such processes.
Fundamental concepts will be discussed, such as Porter’s Five Forces to understand the competitive environment, the Marketing Framework (3C-STP-4P) to map the target market, and the Business Model Canvass, to create a unitary vision.
Finally we will briefly introduce the basic concepts of licensing and start-up creation. Examples will be given and an in class exercise will be proposed.
Seminars
Seminars are an essential part of the school program: they either focus on a particular aspect of the courses or provide a direct connection with all the research and development stakeholders (universities, research centres, industries, science/technology parks, incubators)
Getting oriented in the jungle of career choices, job and funding opportunities for early stage researchers
Soft Skills
Team Bonding
According to the Oxford Dictionary team bonding is: “The action or practice of seeking to improve the effectiveness, cohesiveness, and morale of a team of people (typically in sport or in the workplace), especially by means of activities or events intended to increase motivation and promote cooperation; the result of this, increased cohesion or morale in a team of people.”
In SoSMSE 2018 team bonding is an essential part of the training, because any skill related to the capability of working in team and being able to forge bonds with the co-workers will be pivotal in all careers.
So, apart from the very format of the school, the courses of which are organized around groups, one day will devoted to a special team bonding out door activity, combining work and …. FUN.
Further details are omitted for the time being, not to spoil the surprise.
Schedule
Work hard, play hard!
Application
Students are required to send their application by June, 3rd 2018 via our online form.
A short CV and a presentation letter by a professor from the applicant’s home institution must be attached.
The fee amounts to 1500,00 euro, and covers all the costs related to tuition, boarding and lodging, and social events.
Bursaries supported by Regione Liguria are available for students enrolled at UniGe or other Italian universities, and for newly graduated students (both bachelor and master degree), provided that they have not turned 26 before the beginning of the school.
The bursary application can be indicated in the school application form, and will be taken in consideration if all the required documents are provided (i.e. CV, presentation letter, and precompiled official transcript of records).
Admission will be notified by June, 10th 2018 together with the coordinates for the payment.
School Attendance Rules
Attendance at all lectures, tutorials, seminars and workshops is compulsory. Group work can extend into the evenings
Twice per day (mornings, afternoons), students will be required to sign the attendance sheet.
Students commit themselves to participating actively in every task given to the group they have been assigned to, the team building event included.
Participation in the Social Program (city visit, social dinner, and video and photo-session) is mandatory, too.
No diploma will be issued to those who fail to comply with these rules.
General Requirements
You are requested to arrive in Genoa on Sunday, July 8th, by 5:00 pm, in order to participate in the Welcome Dinner.
Bring a laptop! It will be necessary during the school attendance and the group work. A wifi connection will be provided both at the University and the hotel.
The team building event is an outdoor activity, for which light trekking shoes and clothing are needed.
And don’t forget to bring swimsuit and towel, one never knows……
Contacts
School Venues
During SoSMSE all the non-local participants (lecturers included) will be lodged at the hotel La Capannina, which is in foot distance from the Department of Physics. Sharing the same accomodation help establishing the right atmosphere of collaboration between teachers and students.
Meals will be eaten in the University canteen in Corso Gastaldi.
Lectures will be held in the Physics Department of the University of Genoa, DiFi, located in Via Dodecaneso 33.
How Can We Help?
For further information and to communicate special needs, please get in touch with us .
Hosted by
Our Partners
University of Genoa
Université de Paris Sud
Universidade do Porto
Adam Mickiewicz University
Poznan
Our Supporters
Regione Liguria
Camera di Commercio
Genova