The Entrepreneurial Scientist Bootcamp is a high-energy, hands-on experience that helps postgraduate researchers and scientists turn ideas from the lab into real business opportunities. Over five intensive days (spread across two weeks), you’ll immerse yourself in an online venture-building journey, supported by the Mashauri Campus and Zoom. The program mixes interactive lectures, guest speakers, and “Knowledge Dives” with plenty of team-based work. You’ll not only sharpen your entrepreneurial mindset but also learn how to structure, test, and grow a business idea using lean startup tools.
You’ll join a small, diverse team to develop one of the venture ideas submitted by participants. That means you may be working on your own idea—or someone else’s—but either way, you’ll gain valuable exposure to new fields, practical problem-solving, and the process of shaping a raw concept into a viable business. Along the way, you’ll hear from entrepreneurs and experts, build your venture step-by-step, and culminate with a pitch event where your team presents to experienced judges and investors. It’s an action-packed, collaborative, and fun learning environment designed to push you outside your comfort zone and reward curiosity, creativity, and commitment.
The bootcamp is more than just a short course—it’s a career-shaping experience. You’ll walk away with a toolkit for entrepreneurship, insights into intellectual property and funding, a network of like-minded peers, and a certificate from Mashauri and the Max Delbrück Centre to recognize your achievement. Past programs have had great success in fields like food science and health science, and participants often describe it as an exciting, life-changing journey. If you’re ready to explore how your research can make real-world impact and want to challenge yourself in a fast-paced environment, this is your opportunity to bridge science with business.
The CRG BioBusiness School is a highly interactive, activity-driven learning process that takes scientists through a concentrated entrepreneurial immersion experience; aiming to instil an entrepreneurial mindset and to ignite the ability to convert lab-ideas into business ones.
The core of the program takes you through the venture building process in small groups of participants; supported by exchange with entrepreneurs and business experts culminating in a pitch event. This online experience, designed by the CRG Technology Transfer and Training office, with the special collaboration of the PROTrEIN project, provides valuable resources such as business templates, educational material and a communication channel to capture and maximise the inputs and outputs of the event.
Participants benefits You will benefit from building an entrepreneurial skillset that will give you the capacity and confidence to pinpoint the added commercial value of your research as well as to envision the creation of your own business. Furthermore, if you decide not to follow the path of entrepreneurship, these competencies are greatly sought after by corporates, NGOs and the public sector - and as such, you will gain an advantage in the job market. The online format of the program widens the networking opportunities with national and international fellows, allowing you to establish bonds with other participants and invited speakers. Besides work, there will also be fun activities to keep the group stimulated and engaged.
The UJ TTO Student Startup Studio is a highly interactive, activity-driven learning process that takes students through a concentrated entrepreneurial immersion experience. They will get to work with registered intellectual property belonging to the UJ TTO and be challenged to develop a business idea around one of these pieces of IP.
The goal of the UJ TTO Student Startup Studio is to utilize the students' expertise to help develop new business ideas from the University's IP. Students will consolidate the entrepreneurial learning they have gained in the prior 6 months and put it into practice. They will additionally learn other entrepreneurial concepts and tools that will help them to take their ventures closer to entrepreneurial readiness.
For the TTO, this bootcamp offers a chance to provide valuable IP to entrepreneurial students who have been trained and have been receiving support for the past six months. They will work in teams, using a specific piece of IP and developing and testing a new venture idea. This approach hopes to generate potential spin-offs from the IP and leverage the investments made in these students.
This activity-based process takes post-graduates through a concentrated entrepreneurial immersion experience designed to instil an entrepreneurial mindset - and to develop the ability to convert lab ideas into business ideas.
The Schools are vertically focused (e.g. agritech) and the business concepts are prescribed, guided or left open.
The core is a highly interactive, group-based venture development process supported by exposure to entrepreneurs and experts and culminating in a pitch event.
The specific content may change depending on the participant's requirements and limitations. The program may be run online or offline.
We have had great success in food science and health science. In addition, our IPathon (see appendix) is an offshoot of this program.
The video below is an example of one of these bootcamps which we have annually run for CRG since 2019.
Contact simon.gifford@mashauri.org for more information
UJ Technology Transfer Office are hosting the Venture Spark Bootcamp.
This activity-based process takes post-graduates and faculty through a concentrated entrepreneurial immersion experience designed to instil an entrepreneurial mindset - and to develop the ability to convert lab ideas into business ideas.
This Bootcamp is open to all student ideas but preference is given to those whose ideas are related to their own University-based research.
The core is a highly interactive, group-based venture development process supported by exposure to entrepreneurs and experts and culminating in a pitch event.
The program will be hybrid (online and face-to-face) where all the participants will work from the UJ TTO premises in Johannesburg from 20th November to 24th November, 2023. Lectures and tasks will be presented online and a coach will be on-hand on the premises to guide the venture building activity.
Contact carob@uj.ac.za or simon.gifford@mashauri.org for more information
This activity-based process takes post-graduates through a concentrated entrepreneurial immersion experience designed to instil an entrepreneurial mindset - and to develop the ability to convert lab ideas into business ideas.
The Schools are vertically focused (e.g. agritech) and the business concepts are prescribed, guided or left open.
The core is a highly interactive, group-based venture development process supported by exposure to entrepreneurs and experts and culminating in a pitch event.
The specific content may change depending on the participant's requirements and limitations. The program may be run online or offline.
We have had great success in food science and health science. In addition, our IPathon (see appendix) is an offshoot of this program.
The video below is an example of one of these bootcamps which we have annually run for CRG since 2019.
Contact simon.gifford@mashauri.org for more information
The CRG BioBusiness School is a highly interactive, activity-driven learning process that takes scientists through a concentrated entrepreneurial immersion experience; aiming to instil an entrepreneurial mindset and to ignite the ability to convert lab-ideas into business ones.
Participants benefits You will benefit from building an entrepreneurial skillset that will give you the capacity and confidence to pinpoint the added commercial value of your research as well as to envision the creation of your own business. Furthermore, if you decide not to follow the path of entrepreneurship, these competencies are greatly sought after by corporates, NGOs and the public sector - and as such, you will gain an advantage in the job market. The online format of the program widens the networking opportunities with national and international fellows, allowing you to establish bonds with other participants and invited speakers. Besides work, there will also be fun activities to keep the group stimulated and engaged.