Author: EPS Young Minds

More and more young scientists decide to pursue a career in the private economy sector. A very special way to make this transition from working in academia to working in industry is starting up your own company. Yet, despite the challenges and the fact that the academic curriculum does little to prepare science students for the business world, there are many young scientists taking this step each year, frequently building their start-up on technological skills, the network and the knowledge they have acquired during their PhD.

But what is needed to be successful? What skills are required? How do I know my research can be transformed into a product the market wants? What are the stumbling stones? How to acquire funding? These are just examples of the many questions that occupy young researchers seeking their own business.

To address and discuss these and the many other open questions the EPS Young Minds Programme and the European office of The Optical Society (OSA) teamed up and organized the webinar series “From PhD to CEO”. In 6 sessions founders from Germany, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and Ireland shared their insights, the experiences they made and a honest perspective of all ups and downs of the entrepreneurial world.

Reaching an international audience well beyond Europe and with more than 500 registrations, the series was extremely well received, considering the large success of the event, the preparations for a second edition are currently ongoing, aligned with the agenda of the current EPS presidency that puts a higher emphasize on the relations to industry and related activities.

EPS YM and OSA Europe would like to thank the speakers for participating in the series once more. The recordings of the event are available on the website of the OSA.

(Left) Yann Amouroux (OSA Europe), Richard Zeltner (EPS YM) and Claus Roll (OSA Europe) discussing the second edition of “From PhD to CEO” online. (Right): The first edition featured founders from 5 different countries and the fields of space optics, quantum optics, photonic integrated circuitry, optical tweezers and biophotonics, as well as photonic and optic component retail.