Many researchers and scientists work their whole life in a specific field and they are “top-notch” experts, with years of experience. Most PhD students invest many years in research, development and testing while they are preparing their doctoral dissertation, but this knowledge and experience are rarely applied in the industry. Too few PhD holders in the EU go on to work outside academia and too few startups and spin-off companies are founded by PhD holders. As a result, there’s a lack of successful startups and spin-off companies that are coming from the universities in Europe.
The goal of COGSTEPS is to create educational materials, support programme, and a web platform to support researchers and scientists in transforming their research results and innovations into deep-tech startups and do so in an international environment. During the event, organized by Know-Center and TU Graz (ISDS), we want to introduce the project and its activities to the stakeholders in the Graz startup ecosystem and identify potential synergies.