Abstract
New market opportunities in the life sciences will emerge in the next few years, thanks to scientific advancements and the need for entrepreneurs who can address these opportunities is following such a trend. The role of companies, in particular of innovative start-ups in contributing to the development and economic growth of society and in the development of healthcare-related solutions, has been extensively studied. Unfortunately it has been clear since at least a decade that there is a profound mismatch between the traditional role of doctoral education in preparing young researchers for an academic career. Particularly in life sciences the existence of pure scientific results, however excellent they may be, does not automatically entail their transformation into innovative activities. This is the reason why the role of the researcher within the entrepreneurial process of a high-tech start-up—particularly in the field of biotechnology—is fundamental, especially in the initial stages. Examples of focused training and supporting solutions are existing but still not standardised. On the other hand, the need to maximise the impact of scientific research on society requires curricula, particularly for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) students, which will explicitly include entrepreneurial and innovation management components as transformative tools to maximise their contribution to society.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The value proposition will include, at least, research of excellence description, its protection (the patent), the definition of a strategy and the formalization of these in documents to be shared (business plan, pitch and business model) will allow to introduce oneself to initially close and informal investors (the three ‘3F’, family friends and fools ‘and business angels’) and then to more and more professional actors (‘seeds and venture capitalists’) in order to attract economic resources which, with additional public funding.
References
Amabile TM (1997) Entrepreneurial creativity through motivational synergy. J Creat Behav 31:18–26. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2162-6057.1997.tb00778.x
Amabile TM (2013) Componential theory of creativity. In: Kessler EH (ed) Encyclopedia of management theory. Sage, London
Audretsch DB, Kayalar-Erdem D (2005) Determinants of scientist entrepreneurship: an integrative research agenda. In: Handbook of entrepreneurship research. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham
Block JH, Fisch CO, van Praag M (2017) The Schumpeterian entrepreneur: a review of the empirical evidence on the antecedents, behaviour and consequences of innovative entrepreneurship. Ind Innov 24:61–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/13662716.2016.1216397
Chiodin D, Cox EM, Edmund AV et al (2019) Regulatory affairs 101: introduction to investigational new drug applications and clinical trial applications. Clin Transl Sci 12:334–342. https://doi.org/10.1111/cts.12635
Chong ZS, Clohisey S (2021) How to build a well-rounded CV and get hired after your PhD. FEBS J 288:3072. https://doi.org/10.1111/febs.15635
Clarke DF, Pascual F, Ojoo A (n.d.) Module 7: target product profiles. World Health Organisation, Geneva, pp 126–143
Davies T, Macaulay L, Pretorius L (2019) Tensions between disciplinary knowledge and transferable skills: fostering personal epistemology during doctoral studies. In: Wellbeing in doctoral education. Springer, Singapore
De Grande H, De Boyser K, Vandevelde K, Van Rossem R (2014) From academia to industry: are doctorate holders ready? J Knowl Econ 5:538. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-014-0192-9
Del Bosco B, Mazzucchelli A, Chierici R, Di Gregorio A (2021) Innovative start-up creation: the effect of local factors and demographic characteristics of entrepreneurs. Int Entrep Manag J 17:145. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-019-00618-0
Dixon J (2019) RIPCO, FIPCO, NRDO, FIPNET, VIPCO. Trade secrets, bioengineering community. Nat Biotechnol. https://bioengineeringcommunity.nature.com/posts/45149-ripco-fipco-nrdo-fipnet-vipco
Edwards-Schachter M, García-Granero A, Sánchez-Barrioluengo M et al (2015) Disentangling competences: interrelationships on creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. Think Skills Creat 16:27–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2014.11.006
EIT Health EU (n.d.) Promoting innovation in health. (EU) EIT Health. https://eithealth.eu/. Accessed 15 Nov 2021
EMBL (n.d.) EIPOD4 Fellowship programme—postdoctoral programme. https://www.embl.org/about/info/postdoctoral-programme/eipod4-fellowship-programme/. Accessed 15 Nov 2021
European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (2015) Horizon 2020. Assessing the results and impacts of Horizon
European Institute of Innovation & Technology (2020) European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT). https://eit.europa.eu/. Accessed 15 Nov 2021
Froshauer S (2017) Careers at biotech start-ups and in entrepreneurship. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. https://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a032938
Goji T, Hayashi Y, Sakata I (2020) Evaluating “start-up readiness” for researchers: case studies of research-based start-ups with biopharmaceutical research topics. Heliyon 6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04160
Gurău C, Dana LP (2020) Financing paths, firms’ governance and corporate entrepreneurship: accessing and applying operant and operand resources in biotechnology firms. Technol Forecast Soc Change 153. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.TECHFORE.2020.119935
Haynes K, Metcalfe J, Videler T (2009) What do researchers do? First destinations of doctoral graduates by subject
Kamid, Marzal J, Heriyanti et al (2020) Responding the integrated model of entrepreneur characteristic with STEM to enhance students creativity. In: AIP Conference Proceedings
Kaplan S, Murray F (2010) Entrepreneurship and the construction of value in biotechnology. In: Phillips N, Sewell G, Griffiths D (eds) Technology and organization: essays in honour of Joan Woodward. Emerald Group, pp 107–147
Kergroach S, Meissner D, Vonortas NS (2018) Technology transfer and commercialisation by universities and PRIs: benchmarking OECD country policy approaches. Econ Innov New Technol. https://doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2017.1376167
Kismihók G, Cardells F, Güner PB et al (2019) Declaration on sustainable researcher careers https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.3082245
Kobayashi VB, Mol S, Kismihok G (2014) Labour market driven learning analytics. J Learn Anal 1:207–210. https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2014.13.24
Maloy S, Pucher C, Sedam M et al (2020) Opening doors for diverse talent in biotechnology with the BIO I-Corps experience. Nat Biotechnol 38:1099–1102. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-020-0663-4
Mas-Tur A, Ribeiro Soriano D (2014) The level of innovation among young innovative companies: the impacts of knowledge-intensive services use, firm characteristics and the entrepreneur attributes. Serv Bus 8:51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-013-0186-x
Miron-Shatz T, Shatz I, Becker S et al (2014) Promoting business and entrepreneurial awareness in health care professionals: lessons from venture capital panels at medicine 2.0 conferences. J Med Internet Res 16:e184
National Science Foundation (2013) US NSF—I-Corps. https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/i-corps/. Accessed 15 Nov 2021
Oliver AL (2004) Biotechnology entrepreneurial scientists and their collaborations. Res Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2004.01.010
Patzelt H, Brenner T (eds) (2008) Handbook of bioentrepreneurship. Springer, New York, NY
Patzelt H, Schweizer L, Behrens J (2012) Biotechnology entrepreneurship. Found Trends Entrep 8(63–140). https://doi.org/10.1561/0300000041
Piña IL, Cohen PD, Larson DB et al (2015) A framework for describing health care delivery organizations and systems. Am J Public Health 105:670. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2014.301926
Porter ME (1985) Competitive advantage: creating and sustaining superior performance. Free Press, New York
Rank J, Pace VL, Frese M (2004) Three avenues for future research on creativity, innovation, and initiative. Appl Psychol 53:518–528
Saenen B, Morais R, Gaillard V, Borrell-Damián L (2019) Research assessment in the transition to open science: 2019 EUA open science and access survey results
Samsom KJ, Gurdon MA (1993) University scientists as entrepreneurs: a special case of technology transfer and high-tech venturing. Technovation. https://doi.org/10.1016/0166-4972(93)90054-Y
Shimasaki C (2020) What is biotechnology entrepreneurship? In: Biotechnology entrepreneurship. Elsevier, pp 3–16
Skala A (2019) The start-up as a result of innovative entrepreneurship. In: Digital start-ups in transition economies. Springer, Cham
SPARK Norway (n.d.) SPARK Norway—a two-year innovation programme. UiO:Life Science. https://www.uio.no/english/research/strategic-research-areas/life-science/innovation/spark/. Accessed 15 Nov 2021
The Economist (2010) Doctoral degrees: the disposable academic, Why doing a PhD is often a waste of time. The Economist
The Royal Society (2010) The scientific century: securing our future prosperity
Ulnicane I (2015) Broadening aims and building support in science, technology and innovation policy: the case of the European research area. J Contemp Eur Res 11(1):31–49
Veeraraghavan V (2009) Entrepreneurship and innovation. Asia Pacific Bus Rev. https://doi.org/10.1177/097324700900500102
Wang M, Soetanto D, Cai J, Munir H (2021) Scientist or entrepreneur? Identity centrality, university entrepreneurial mission, and academic entrepreneurial intention. J Technol Transf 47:119. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-021-09845-6
Weber CT, Borit M, Canolle F et al (2018) Identifying and documenting transferable skills and competences to enhance early career researchers employability and competitiveness
Weckowska DM (2015) Learning in university technology transfer offices: transactions-focused and relations-focused approaches to commercialization of academic research. Technovation. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2014.11.003
Woolston C (2020) Uncertain prospects for postdoctoral researchers. Nature 588:181–184
Worldometer (2020) Life expectancy by country and in the world (2020). Worldmeter
Wright M, Birley S, Mosey S (2004) Entrepreneurship and university technology transfer. J Technol Transf 29(3/4):235–246
Acknowledgements
This article has been conceptualised by EuroScience’s Science Policy Workgroup on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The authors wish to thank Teresa Fernandez, Nandakumar Krishnaswamy, Olayinka Osuolale and Violeta Greciuhin for their critical revision of the initial manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cahill, B., Conicella, F., Galligan, E., Györffi, M. (2023). To Be or Not to Be: Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Creation as a Way to Innovate in Life Sciences. In: Thomas, J.R., Saso, L., van Schravendijk, C. (eds) Career Options in the Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Industry . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14911-5_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14911-5_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-14910-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-14911-5
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)