Academia 2 entrepreneurial impact (A2EI): Gain hands-on entrepreneurial experience for your research

Introduction

Key terms: generating impact with your PhD project, entrepreneurial skills, innovation, introductory course, relevant for students in all stages of their PhD trajectory. 

ECTS: 2.5 
Number of sessions: 3
Hours per session: 

Developing entrepreneurial skills is becoming increasingly important for PhD candidates. These skills will expand your career opportunities beyond academia, helping you prepare for a possible transition into industry, startups, consulting, or policymaking.

On a personal level, entrepreneurship cultivates adaptability, resilience, and leadership — all essential qualities in both research and business environments. Solving problems through entrepreneurship often requires interdisciplinary collaboration, proactive decision-making, and the ability to navigate uncertainty.

Whether you will be leading a research team, launching a venture, or working in a corporate environment, these skills will help you to spot and act on opportunities, drive change, and use your expertise to create value.

This hybrid, 4-month course is designed to encourage engaged research, foster cross- and interdisciplinary thinking, and equip participants with the knowledge, skills, and mindset necessary to create entrepreneurial impact with their research.

Offered as a collaboration between UNIC universities, you’ll be guided by facilitators from the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship (ECE) and guest experts from Ruhr University Bochum (Germany), University of Liège (Belgium), University of Łódź (Poland) and University of Deusto (Spain). 
 

Entry level and relevance

This is an introductory course about entrepreneurship and innovation. No prior business or entrepreneurship experience is required—just bring an open mind and energy to explore new perspectives on your research potential.

The course is useful for researchers in all phases of their PhD trajectory, and it has a broad disciplinary relevance. The course methodologies include experiential learning and peer-to-peer exchange with researchers from diverse social science and humanities research fields.

Relations with other courses

This course complements the EGSH course Science meets entrepreneurship: Developing an entrepreneurial mindset. While the latter course is a brief introduction to entrepreneurial thinking, the A2EI course offers a much more extensive and experiential programme that involves peer-to-peer exchange with candidates from other European UNIC universities.

Students can choose either one of these courses based on their time availability and depth of interest.

Sessions and preparations

For the exact programme, please visit: 
A2EI - Academia to Entrepreneurial Impact
 

Session 1 (online): Kick-off & entrepreneurial challenge
The session begins with a kick-off and team formation, followed by an introduction to the challenge by a city representative. Participants then join a workshop covering essential entrepreneurship principles. The session concludes with a wrap-up and an overview of the next steps.
Participants also have the option to take part in additional online seminars offered by UNIC universities about various topics, including the role of ethics and responsibility in enterprising society (University of Lodz), guidelines for conferences and publications (University of Deusto), and research on cross-disciplinary technology transfer and academic ventures (Ruhr University Bochum).

Session 2 & 3 (in-person at EUR): Entrepreneurship awakening
Over 2.5 days, participants engage in entrepreneurship workshops and hands-on activities. Day 1 includes sessions on the entrepreneurial process and an afternoon visit to a local innovation ecosystem. Day 2 focuses on business modeling and preparing presentations. The program wraps up on Day 3 with final pitches and a certificate ceremony.
Preparation: study videos via online learning platform & finish 3 online peer-to-peer modules applying entrepreneurial principles (4 hours each). 

*The deadline for application is 8 September 2025.
Please note that there are limited spots available for this course. After your application we'll let you know as soon as possible whether you've been admitted.