Class Basics of Company Management

Biochemistry professionals are increasingly invited to participate in the management of startups or spin-off companies, which derive from the innovation and applied research carried out in research laboratories. It is intended to expose the students enrolled with this course to the reality of applied research, therefore preparing them for the management of innovation, whenever it moves from the laboratory to the market. Students should acquire skills in fundamental concepts of innovation-driven companies, such as the "Technological Readiness Level (TRL)", industrial licensing, "Freedom to operate" (FTO), clinical trials and "Intellectual Property" (IP).

Follows below the list of topics to be covered alomng this course:

• Technology-Based Companies;
• Examples of Corporate Social Responsibility: COVID-19;
• The Concept of Research;
• The Concept of Innovation;
• Triple-Helix innovation model: introduction and detailed analysis;
• Science and Technology Parks;
• Third mission of Universities;
• Case Study: Entrepreneurship Programs at Universities;
• "Design Thinking" methodology;
• Analysis of BIO business ideas;
• The Business Plan;
• The "Elevator Pitch";
• Financial Plan (from the Business Plan);
• Introduction to Industrial Property;
• Industrial Property: patents;
• Exploitation of patents;
• Introduction to the "Business Model Canvas";
• Basics of the instrument «StartUP Voucher»;
• European Program «Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs»;
• The concept "Freedom To Operate";
• The concept of "TRL";
• Types of funding in view of "TRL";
• Main positions in a tech-based company.

The classes that make up this course are all theoretical and, as such, require the use of differentiated strategies that stimulate and keep the interest of students. In view of this, the teacher always tried to encourage a participatory discussion over the topics addressed during the classes. He often used videos to better illustrate the course's contents and some online tools, to which he added the presentation of examples of everyday life and concrete companies / products / services that, together, allowed students to make a nexus between theory and the real world.

Pascoal, A, Cabrita, M-R, Innovation Ecosystems Centred in EU-Based Science Parks: Recent Past and new Trends, Academia. March 8, 2022. https://www.academia.edu/25049521/Innovation_ecosystems_centred_in_EU_based_science_parks_recent_past_and_new_trends

Osterwalder A, Pigneur Y (2010). Business Model Generation – A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers and Challengers. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

A) O docente disponibiliza ainda uma apresentação "MS PowerPoint" em cada aula, sendo que o conjunto das mesmas constitui a sebenta-resumo da disciplina.

B) Acresce uma biblioteca de «pitch decks» em vários formatos: videos com som e imagem e/ou apresentação "MS PowerPoint".

C) Ocasionalmente, são partilhados «links» para recursos na «web», mediante os quais os alunos poderão aprofundar alguns dos conteúdos leccionados.