Innovation & Entrepreneurship

This programme is a collaboration between the Oxford Foundry, Saïd Business School, and the University of Oxford's Physics Department.

Trinity Term online course option for all 2nd and 3rd year undergraduate Physics students. This is a Short Option (S33) that has been approved by the Physics Department. Your mark at the end of the assessment will contribute towards your degree. 

A bespoke course being delivered over 7 sessions in the first 4 weeks of Trinity Term 2021 to equip undergraduate Physics students with the knowledge and skills to transform ideas and inventions into scalable businesses. The online programme will challenge you to deepen your understanding of your customers and to cater your business idea to their needs—we call this "problem-solution fit." During the programme, you will learn from expert startup coaches, ex-Physicists turned entrepreneurs, industry experts, and senior faculty from the Saïd Business School to guide you through this introductory course. The course will conclude with an assessment.

Facilitators include: 

• Pegram Harrison - Senior Fellow in Entrepreneurship
• Yo Percale - Founder of Rebel consulting
• Jon Moorhouse - Intellectual property and commercial lawyer 

Guest Speakers  include: 

• Lewis Liu - Co-Founder & CEO at Eigen Technologies
• Irwin Zaid - Co-Founder at SeeThrough Scientific
• Achillefs Kapanidis - Professor of Biological Physics at the University of Oxford & Academic Co-founder at Oxford Nanoimaging
• Matthew Wilson - Co-Founder at Veratrak (2017-2019) and Co-Founder at Omnipresent (2019-present)
• Sasha Haco - Co-Founder and CEO at Unitary
• Sophie Hackford, Futurist and Co-founder, 1715Labs

For facilitator and guest speaker biographies, click here.

1. Session 1 - Week 1, 28 April, 11:00-13:00: Inspiration and Zoom onboarding – with guest speakers Lewis Liu, Irwin Zaid & Achillefs Kapanidis
2. Session 2 - Week 1, 30 April, 11:00-13:00: Team building – with guest speakers Yo Percale & Diane Wilkinson
3. Session 3 - Week 2, 05 May, 11:00-13:00: Creative thinking & problem discovery
4. Session 4 - Week 2, 06 May, 11:00-13:00: Intellectual property & licensing – with guest speaker Jon Moorhouse
5. Session 5 - Week 3, 12 May, 11:00-13:00: Market segmentation & knowing your customer – with guest speaker Matthew Wilson
6. Session 6 - Week 3, 13 May, 11:00-13:00: Quantifying the value proposition & designing a business model – with guest speakers Sophie Hackford & Sasha Haco
7. Session 7 - Week 4, 19 May, 11:00:13:00: Assessment

For further information, you can read more about the experiences of Graduate Physicists who took part in this course in Trinity Term 2020 – read here.