Future Innovators – A Helmholtz Transfer Academy

The DLR_Startup Factory team and the DESY Start-up Office are launching their ‘Future Innovators – A Helmholtz Transfer Academy’ programme. Are you a scientist working on exciting research projects and want to find out how much application potential they have? Do you want your ideas to help shape the world of tomorrow? Would setting up a company interest you? What does it all mean? Find the answers in Future Innovators.

In the three Future Innovators modules, we will introduce you to the entrepreneurial mindset and show you which entrepreneurial skills you can develop with us. Make more of your own ideas – for example, through transfer projects, spin-offs or collaborations with the business community.

Introduction Module: About Innovators and Innovation

In the first module, you will learn to better assess your personality and skills through self-analysis. Our workshop will introduce you to the entrepreneurial mindset and the user-centric innovation process, enabling you to develop and evaluate your own visions. You will also analyse your own research work for its entrepreneurial potential.

Bootcamp: High-Tech Design Sprint

Module 2 shows you how to find a technology in an existing application to solve a problem (‘application seeks technology’). At the core of the module is the High-Tech Design Sprint, based on the Biodesign method developed at Stanford. In the sprint, you will experience inspiring collaboration in interdisciplinary teams and go through a three-step process together. First, existing problems and deep-tech needs are identified, then potential solutions are developed and subjected to an evaluation process. Finally, an implementation plan is drawn up for the most promising ideas. All of this is done in the shortest time possible, in a sprint. Mastering this structured process and the experience of working in interdisciplinary teams will help you in your future career – both as a sciencepreneur and in the field of research. The High-Tech Design Sprint expands your knowledge in just one week, while other formats take months. The workshop is face-to-face so you can easily share ideas with each other.

Workshop: Application Discovery

In the third module, we look for an application for your technology (‘technology seeks application’). The aim is to apply the knowledge you have gained to your own ideas. What potential do they have? How can I find out? Based on your research, we will look specifically at the topic of ‘idea transfer’. Using your example, we will analyse stakeholders, potential customers and users and then create initial use cases.

We will also look for possible applications based on existing technologies. Finally, we look at how to address market participants in a way that is appropriate for the target group.