IRD and Kedge Business School launch "Science and entrepreneurship: the fundamentals" MOOC

This online training course, open to all, is aimed at research players wishing to develop an economic activity based on their scientific results or related to their work. To be followed on FUN-MOOC from April 15, 2024!

The MOOC "Science and entrepreneurship: the fundamentals" is designed to help young scientists and research workers from all over the world enter the world of entrepreneurship. In particular, it aims to raise awareness among doctoral students, researchers and teacher-researchers, as well as engineers, technicians and those in charge of commercialization and innovation, of the tools needed to start a business based on research results. Through the video presentations of expert economists, company directors, financing specialists (particularly in Africa) and business coaches, it reviews the principles of validating a need and a market, the steps leading to the prototype of a solution , and how to present it in order to approach strategic partners, particularly financial and technical ones.

At the end of this course, learners will be able to :

• how to design and finance a research-action project with innovative potential,
• measure their market potential and validate the needs of their beneficiaries or users,
• define their value proposition and test their business model,
• prototype and present their solution to strategic partners, particularly financial and technical.

Participants who complete all modules and pass the quizzes will be awarded a training badge . Doctoral students can apply to their doctoral school to have the 30 hours of teaching time taken into account in their training.

This initiative is led by thethe French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) and Kedge Business School. It is co-funded by the ACE Partner program (World Bank, AFD, AUA, IRD, Inria), and has received technical support fromthe Cheikh Hamidou KANE Digital University (UN-CHK, formerly the Virtual University of Senegal) and input from a steering committee composed of theAssociation of African Universities (AUA), theAgence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF),Expertise France, Campus AFD, theAfrica Centre of Excellence on Technology-Enhanced Learning (ACETEL, Nigeria), and the African Centre of Excellence on Climate Change, Biodiversity, and Sustainable Agriculture (CEA-CCBAD, Côte d’Ivoire). This is the^second MOOC in the IRD’s “Transversal Skills for Research Professions” series on the FUN-MOOC platform. The MOOC will also be available in English (starting May 13) and in Spanish (first semester of 2024).

Coordination and pedagogical engineering: Gaëlle Courcoux (IRD), Julien Dupont, Victoire Ennesser and Yannig Lavocat (Kedge Business School)

Images : Cheikh Hamidou KANE Digital University (UN-CHK), We up Learning and Emile Rivet

Graphic design and post-production: WeUp Learning

Find out more and register: https: //www.fun-mooc.fr/fr/cours/science-et-entrepreneuriat-les-fondamentaux