Admission requirements
The New Technology Venture (NTV) Assignment is the final part of the NTV track in the Science Based Business programme. Only students registered for this track can do this assignment.
The assignment builds upon the courses NTV1: Entrepreneurial Opportunities, NTV2: The entrepreneurial Process and NTV3: Business Planning, which need to be followed prior to or in parallel with the NTV assignment.
Description
Purpose of the assignment: to develop a full understanding of and get real life experience with the process of starting a new technology venture by studying and helping resolve issues that a start-up is facing.
There are 3 basic options for the assignment:
- You wil research how to exploit an opportunity to start your own business;
- You will research how to exploit an opportunity for a business that somebody else wants to create;
- You will join a start-up company where you research specific issues that the management needs to address.
The opportunity or start-up company needs to be based on the application of new knowledge (to be) created by scientific research in the natural or biomedical sciences.
Your business research will be hypothesis-based and action-oriented towards testing your hypotheses and creating deliverables and solutions.
Activities that are part of the assignment will alwaysaddress the questions "what should be done", "how should this be done", and "why should this be done in this way".
In everything you do you will always consider relevant knowledge which can be found in scientific literature and books by practitioners as well as advice you will gather from business coaches and consultants.
Tangible outcomes will be matters like an industry and market analysis, a marketing plan, a technology development plan, an operations plan, an IP strategy, subsidy proposals, product development plans, a business plan, etc.
Your assignment may also entail some proof-of-concept experiments necessary to test your business hypotheses, be it that such experimental work should not dominate over the business purpose of the assignment.
Usually, your office from which you will operate will be Hubspot. You will probably be a member of Lugus. Regularly you will talk with your supervisor(s) and business coache(s) assigned to you, and have a joint session with fellow students with entrepreneurial aspirations in which you share your experiences and discuss insights on creating technology ventures found in business literature.
Course objectives
Learning outcome should be that you are able to:
- independently work on building a new technology startup based on knowledge created in scientific research;
- apply a scientific approach to optimizing the design of the new company;
- duly and correctly identify and use the applicable concepts, views and frameworks with respect to starting new technology ventures;
- report your work -both orally and in writing- in a clear, complete and convincing fashion, including a critical review of what you did and achieved;
- properly defend the way you carried out and reported the assignment; and
- demonstrate you have a high level of knowledge of and insights into the process of building new technology ventures.
Timetable
The NTV assignment will usually cover a period of 4 to 6 months, or proportionally more if done parttime. Start of the assignment is possible anytime during the academic year, but only after consultation with and approval by the responsible teacher.
Mode of instruction
Coaching in weekly meetings by the responsible teacher supervising the assignment as well as feedback provided by a second supervisor or external coach who you will invite to serve as a sounding board and provide advice based on her experience with the business involved.
Course Load
The NTV assignment has an overall study load of 20 to 30 EC with the following build-up:
A research proposal (about 1 week);
Research execution (12 - 22 weeks)
A research report (2-3 weeks)
Concluding presentation and defence (1 week)
Please note: the above time periods listed for he various parts of the assignment are indicative and based on 40 hrs per week. They explicitely include the assumption that during execution you will duly keep notes of what you did and read and whom you consulted to enable you writing your report within the set timeframe. Otherwise a longer period will be required to finish the report.
The research proposal outlines your research research topic, reseach questions and the way in which you plan to execute the reseach. The proposal needs to be properly discussed with and approved by your supervisor before the research will start.
The report will need to adhere to academic standards treating your assignment as a set of coherent experiments, duly reflecting upon them, also considering and duly referencing papers and frameworks relevant to their set-up and outcome.
While preparing your defence you will also review what you learned in the New Technology Ventures courses to ensure that you can show you truly mastered the process of building a technology venture when challenged based on your report and presentation.
The examination committee will consist of the supervisors and or coaches involved, next to at least one other faculty member of or acting on behalf of the department Science Based Business. Also others with suitable knowledge or experience may be invited to join the committee.
Assessment method
The final grade will be determined by the examination committee based on your project proposal, research report, presentation and defence, and on the evaluation made by your supervisor(s) of your performance during the execution of your research. Reaching particular pre-set targets as defined in the proposal and the impact of your assignment will also play a role in the determination of your grade.
Registration
Students can register for the course in uSis. Click here for instructions.
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Registration Studeren à la carte via: www.hum.leidenuniv.nl/onderwijs/alacarte
Registration Contractonderwijs via: http://www.hum.leidenuniv.nl/onderwijs/contractonderwijs
Contact
Please contact Dr. H. Jousma (jousma@sbb.leidenuniv.nl) well in advance to receive more detailed information on the requirements and to discuss potential NTV assignments.
Remarks
None