PhD Innovation Café 2020

Time to pour your knowledge into the business world

Always wanted to pitch your PhD research for a crowd of interested companies? Would you like to receive valuable feedback from the corporate world or engage in collaborations?
Then it’s time to pour your knowledge into the business world and apply for the PhD Innovation Café!

What?

This yearly event is an initiative of the UGent PhD Community and Voka, with support from the Doctoral Schools. We organize knowledge exchange between young researchers and companies. This networking event will initiate new perspectives and aims to bridge the gap between academia and society. In addition, we offer a unique opportunity to introduce you to a variety of companies interested in your research.

The PhD Innovation Café offers…

• Knowledge exchange between researchers and companies
• Networking with entrepreneurs and organizations, with a potential for future recruitment
• Introducing innovation to interested companies
• Being up to date with high-quality innovative research from other fields
• Developing cooperation with companies: receiving data for analysis, conducting research, collaborating on R&D, etc.
• Meeting and debating, providing ideas for (future) research

You will get the unique chance to network with representatives from over 30 companies, including Alundi, Christeyns, Trendwolves, Codevid, Scale Factory, GIS International, Innosens, E-Compass, Decathlon, AM Consulting, Farmad, Docbyte, Proximus, Greet Training, Partners voor Ondernemers, Vandelanotte, Resources Global Professionals, Aprimo, MindCapture, and Caldr.

For whom?

Any PhD researcher at Ghent University, from any year or faculty who:

• wants to pitch their innovative research to a crowd of interested companies
• wants to gain valuable feedback and new industry insights on their research
• wants to network with entrepreneurs and organizations related to their field 

We happily welcome pitches from any faculty or research field, with an important focus on innovation.

The application process

The first selection of applications to pitch is done by a preliminary jury. Selected researchers will get a free one-day training to help deliver a more powerful presentation. This pitch training will earn you 1 Transferable Skill Seminar in the cluster Career Management from the Doctoral Schools.

After this training, a second selection will be done to select the researchers who will present their research in the form of a pitch during the PhD Innovation Café.

The program

• Pitch training: September 29, 2020, 9h30 – 17h (hours subject to change), Voxa Box, Lammerstraat 18 - Ghent
• Selection day: October 12, 2020, 14h - 17h, Voka Box, Lammerstraat 18 - Ghent
• PhD Innovation Café: October 20, 2020, 16h – 20h30, Voka Box, Lammerstraat 18 - Ghent