Training the entrepreneurs Europe needs
The EU-funded ATTRACT2 project is fostering a new generation of researchers who embrace working together with academics, research institutions and businesses to create new technologies that benefit society. The aim is to provide Europe with the young innovators and entrepreneurs it so desperately needs to thrive in global tech markets. To this end, ATTRACT2 is combining deep tech innovation with hands-on entrepreneurship training through its educational arm, the ATTRACT Academy. It all began in 2018 when a consortium of academic and research organisations joined forces under ATTRACT to support the development of breakthrough detection and imaging technologies for science and society. An open call was launched, and 170 promising projects were selected to receive funding. The successes achieved led to the launch of the project’s second phase, ATTRACT2, in 2021. Since then, the project has focused on turning the first phase’s proofs of concept into scientific and industrial applications, building bridges between projects and connecting professional researchers with young innovators and potential investors.
Real-life entrepreneurship
To demonstrate how entrepreneurship works in the real world, the ATTRACT Academy is teaming up business, marketing and other students, and providing them with hands-on experience with new technologies. As Prof. Jonathan Wareham of project partner Esade Business School, Spain, comments in a (‘Science|Business’ article), entrepreneurship training is not about “just sitting in a marketing class and looking at a chalkboard, or looking at PowerPoint presentations … it’s very much hands-on.” So far, the ATTRACT Academy has enabled over 700 students from Europe to take part in multidisciplinary teams and work with professional researchers to explore new commercial applications for deep tech innovations. The initiative does not only help the students get the broad training they need, it also offers the professional researchers the chance to get new perspectives on what their inventions could be used for. For example, one student team proposed that a new medical imaging system be used by art museums to examine and restore paintings. Another team combined cutting-edge technologies to allow labs around the world to track tumour growth in a standardised way. Yet another devised a comprehensive solution to the problem of widespread mould in homes.
Different training needed
Remarking on the way universities in Europe are currently structured, ATTRACT2 advisor and University of Manchester Prof. Cinzia Da Vià states in another ‘Science|Business’ article that “we are not preparing from the start leaders with multiple skills at the same time.” According to the professor, what is needed is a programme that teaches all “the skills that the young entrepreneurs will have to have, thinking in a bigger manner from the start.” In addition to strong trans-disciplinary skills, tomorrow’s entrepreneurs also need to be agile and adaptable to succeed in the rapidly changing global markets. Prof. Da Vià emphasises the importance of ensuring that technology, business, engineering, computing and leadership are taught across Europe – what she refers to as “the wish list” of skills European entrepreneurs need. With the ATTRACT2 (Breakthrough Innovation Programme for a Pan-European Detection and Imaging Eco-System – Phase-2) project’s Academy, she notes, “we are starting a new culture.” For more information, please see: ATTRACT2 project website
Keywords
ATTRACT2, ATTRACT Academy, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, tech, innovation, innovator, deep tech
