FHEA11: Food & Health Entrepreneurship Academy

UC Davis Center for Entrepreneurship Now Accepting Applications for the
2011 Food and Health Entrepreneurship Academy

The UC Davis Center for Entrepreneurship will be held January 31-February 4, 2011 at the Conference Center at UC Davis. 

Applications are now available online at http://entrepreneurship.ucdavis.edu/health.  Graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and faculty working in fields related to foods, nutrition and human health who want to work with experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate R&D partners to explore the commercial opportunities around their research are encouraged to apply. The application deadline is January 1.

Major academy sponsors are Innovation Center Denmark (Silicon Valley), Kraft Foods, PepsiCo and Unilever. 

The five-day academy covers the basics of entrepreneurship and business development, with sessions focusing on networking, intellectual property, market and business validation, development strategies, developing a business pitch, and the logistics of building a team and establishing an organization. Participants also work with mentors from the venture and business communities to develop their group presentations. All accepted students receive scholarships to cover the program’s tuition, materials and lodging for the week.

“The Food and Health Entrepreneurship Academy helps formalize the processes of how to transfer research from the lab to the market. It has the potential to dramatically impact how most universities work with ideas,” said Lars Nielsen, science and technology attache with the Innovation Center Denmark. “We believe this highly successful program will create real value for participating universities and the surrounding society both in the U.S. and internationally.” 

Further details about the academy can be found at http://entrepreneurship.ucdavis.edu/health or e-mail busdev@gsm.ucdavis.edu.  For sponsorship opportunities, contact Wil Agatsein, executive director at the Center for Entrepreneurship, at wagatstein@ucdavis.