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The third Network training event, NT-5 was successfully concluded at The Hyve in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and ran from the 25th to the 27th of February. The event was attended by almost all of the recruited Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) as well as by the supervisors or co-supervisors from all the beneficiaries.
The first day of the workshop was opened with a Welcome Speech by the CEO of The Hyve, Kees van Bochove, and an AiPBAND introduction by the project coordinator, Dr Xinzhong Li.
Over the course of the workshop, a number of subject-specific talks were delivered by invited experts in the fields of business development, entrepreneurship and spin-off development. The speakers included:
Kees van Bochove (CEO of The Hyve), who presented on open source and open source licensing.
Herman van den Berg (Marketeer at UtrechtInc), who talked about business incubation and problem contextualization for market development.
Ruilof van Putten (Director of NL Investeert), who reviewed the current status of venture capital investment in Holland.
The ESRs were encouraged to view their ongoing research in the context of marketable solutions, with a Q&A session following each talk where the ESRs and PIs had an opportunity to engage with the speakers.
Beyond the guest lectures, the ESRs gave 5-minute presentations giving an update on their current work and objectives, gaining feedback from the audience and fellow ESRs that help guide the progress of AiPBAND. In addition to the business development content, the workshop agenda included team-building training led by Tessa van Mourik on the 27th, a hands-on session with all ESRs related to the theme "innovation & entrepreneurship".
On the 25th, the ESRs met with the EU Project Officer while the PIs held the second Supervisory Board Meeting. Afterwards, all AiPBAND members enjoyed the Social Dinner together at LE:EN.
The whole workshop provided ESRs and PIs alike with a forum for discussing and exchanging ideas on developing brain cancer diagnostic techniques and developing collaborations as well as an opportunity to learn about research commercialization.