Entrepreneurial Mindset and Enterprise Skills
An entrepreneurial mindset and enterprise skills are major assets for any future career path.
Professor Chris Young, Head of the School of Arts and Humanities, has spoken about the importance for all researchers to develop these skills.
However, many researchers equate the words "entrepreneurial" and "entrepreneurship" with starting a business, and rule out participating in entrepreneurial education or activities because they are not interested in setting up a company.
And for those who are interested in commercialisation and/or joining a start-up, the beginning of the journey can be really daunting.
Developing an entrepreneurial or innovator mindset and capabilities enables you to spot opportunities and have the capacity to act on these with confidence.
Whether that’s in relation to gaining independence and pursuing an academic career, a commercial opportunity, policy intervention or other means of bringing your research out into the wider world to have an impact.
Below we highlight some of the resources available to postdoctoral researchers in Cambridge to help you develop an entrepreneurial mindset and skills, as well as provide an overview of some of the programmes and stakeholders from the entrepreneurial ecosystem to explore further:
The University Enterprise Network also provides links to the different ways you can get involved in a range of activities at Cambridge, such as learning new skills, attending networking events, getting a job or internship at a start-up, starting your own business, or getting the results of your research applied in industry. They also explain the origins and growth of the Cambridge ecosystem in their “who does what” section.
Postdocs at the University of Cambridge and Partner Institutes can now apply to access two self-directed online learning courses:
- p2i Online: Empowering Researcher to Innovate
- Postdoc Ventures: From Science to Business
These courses will help you learn to innovate and develop enterprise skills. Find out more about both courses and how to apply here.