The GRADnet Winter School took place 14-15 February 2022 and was attended by SEPnet postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers.

Thank you to Julia Shalet at Product Doctor and author of "The really good idea test" who delivered the online training this year. Julia describes how the training went:

"Our theme was 'Moving from Science into Business'. We spent two online days generating some real business ideas and working through the commercial opportunities. By the end of the workshop, four teams talked us through their entire business model in under 4 minutes each - amazing!"

We promised the participants that they would get to turn an idea into a meaningful value proposition that focuses on solving people's problems; find out how to reduce the biggest risks before building anything; map up a new business model and throughout practice good time and people management, written and oral presentation skills, identify and solve problems by gathering evidence of risks and find out the importance of being flexible.

Our participants gave our course brilliant scores - here is what they told us:

• Very informative, engaging, and worthwhile with a friendly presenter who was open to questions and explained concepts clearly.

• It started with simple ideas and built us up to delivering a presentation lasting just a few minutes which brought together everything we had done over the two days.

• The significant thing about this course is that it allows the participant to recreate the required steps for any idea

• I loved the active group work in each section, which helped to solidify ideas when they were presented to us.

• I don't know whether starting my own business is necessarily for me, however I don't regret attending, as it was very informative and helpful!

• Really very useful - I have a product ready to sell but did not have any idea how to start and make a good business plan.

So that's a wrap, another Winter School is done. In the nature of true innovation, we tested and learned from some new formats and we've already identified another twist for next year, when we look forward to meeting in person.

The GRADnet Summer School takes place 4-5 July 2022 at the National Physical Laboratory. If you are a SEPnet postgraduate or postdoctoral researcher or are part of NPL's Postgraduate Institute and would like to register for this event click here.