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Researcher, lecturer, and innovation agent Janne Halme and academic coordinator Minna Günes held a two-day online training event on entrepreneurship for researchers in quantum technology and electronics. The training comprised expert testimonies presented by a range of experts including, deep-tech chief executives, patent specialists, technology investors, business incubators, and universities. The IPR and entrepreneurship training was organized by Aalto University and  for the first time this November.

People speaking at the event included Arttu Luukanen, CEO of Asqella, and Jan Goetz, CEO of IQM, who both have background in nano and quantum electronics research.

‘Obstacles to entrepreneurship include a lack of examples and entrepreneurial thinking, and the inability of a researcher to visualise the path from an idea to a product. Correspondingly, interest in entrepreneurship is clearly greater if the path from an idea to a product is lucid’, says Janne Halme.

The entrepreneurship training was primarily directed at experts of quantum technology and electronics, such as doctoral students in the QuESTech programme (European Quantum Electronics Science & Technology). The training covered the most important steps an entrepreneur should take from an invention all the way to commercialisation. One possible route from researcher to entrepreneur is Business Finland's Research to Business funding. There are now three of these projects underway at the Aalto University Department of Applied Physics, which helps prepare commercialisation of research ideas.

‘I became interested in science and technical research during my studies. Previously I did not consider commercialisation to be intellectually interesting in any way. Now that I understand what entrepreneurship is, I see it primarily as an intellectually intriguing activity. An entrepreneur also models and performs experiments to build a kind of machine: the business model’, Halme says.

In addition to their area of research, entrepreneurs must also understand how the industry in question functions. ‘An entrepreneur and an inventor differ in that the entrepreneur is ready to let go of an invention after noticing that the customers want something different’, Halme says.