Course Description

SFU Beedie School of Business has partnered with Mitacs to offer the international award-winning Invention to Innovation (i2I) program. This bespoke innovation training to develop an entrepreneurial mindset for scientists and engineers is grounded in research, linked to a national network of peers and expert mentors, and ladders into a credential at SFU‘s Beedie School of Business. The program is delivered in 3 cohorts across Canada, in collaboration with Queen‘s University for the East Cohort, and with Dalhousie University & Memorial University for the Atlantic Cohort. Participants are equipped with the theory, frameworks and skills to commercialize inventions by becoming an innovation champion in industry (for example, leading new product development), increasing knowledge mobilization through translational science, or becoming a scientist entrepreneur.

• Lab to Market: An introduction to innovation management frameworks, and how to apply them to articulate value propositions, assess viability, protect IP, manage uncertainty and guide strategy in the commercialization of science.
• Opportunity Identification and Assessment: Participants learn the process for opportunity identification and assessment. Areas covered include frameworks for identifying customers, prioritizing target markets, customer segmentation, technology adoption, product development, defining value propositions and product/service pricing.
• Business Models: This course is an introduction to creating and validating a comprehensive business model, i.e. the architecture that specifies how a firm, startup or unique science or technology creates and captures value.
• Financial Literacy for Entrepreneurs: Participants learn about early stage company finance, including financial accounting and analysis, as well as financial models and business valuation techniques relevant to seed and growth stage technology ventures.

Objectives

• Create a refined business plan for commercialization of a unique product or service
• Validate your business model: test and retest business assumptions and hypotheses
• Develop an entrepreneurial pitch
• Gain proficiency in frameworks and skills relevant to science and technology commercialization
• Develop networks within and across our regional technology ecosystems