Science-based entrepreneurship

Science Based Entrepreneurship (SBE) has been one of the drivers under the innovation economy and has led to many innovations reaching society at breakneck speeds. The course of SBE has as the goal to spark the science based entrepreneurship gene [1] of master students at Utrecht University in the Sciences Faculty, and beyond. If successful, some of the students may even continue with their science based startup to further science and society. We believe that this course fulfills an essential part in university based startup creation [2].

The learning goals of the course are to:

• be able to start a science-based enterprise by developing a viable business idea and creating a startup plan.
• understand the steps involved in developing a science-based startup, including market research, product development, and securing funding.
• apply scientific theories of entrepreneurship and software production to real-world scenarios, demonstrating an ability to integrate theoretical knowledge with practical application.

• vision pitch
• product plan
• review product plan
• prototype
• marketing & validation report
• MVP
• business plan

At the end the business plan is presented to an external Board of Supervisors, which will judge the proposals for business feasibility.
The course has many group assignments and typically, all students in one group end the course with the same grade. However, if one of the members reports problems in the group, it is possible to redistribute grades between students, under supervision of the course examiner. 

To qualify for a repair of the final result the mark needs to be at least a 4, or “AANV”.

On the Use of Artificial Intelligence tools: 
We are fans and users of LLMs for our work and private lives. They can function as sparring partners, tools, translators, and even creators of information models.
However, at Utrecht University we wish to ensure that what is produced by students is their own work and not that of an AI-driven environment.
Please ensure to put, in every deliverable, the role of any technology you’ve used beyond the basic word processor for its creation.
We expect every document to at least contain the equivalent of the sentence: “An LLM was used as a sparring partner and language checker”, as that indicates that you’ve gone the extra mile for your work.

Literature

• Hisrich, R., Langan-Fox, J., & Grant, S., "Entrepreneurship research and practice: a call to action for psychology", 2007, American Psychologist, 62(6), 575.
• S. Jansen, T. van de Zande, S. Brinkkemper, E. Stam, V. Varma, "​​​​​​ How Education, Stimulation, and Incubation Encourage Student Entrepreneurship: Observations from MIT, IIIT, and Utrecht University", 2015, The International Journal of Management Education. (pdf)