i²c Networking Friday – TU Wien Summit on Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Event Details

The i2c Networking Friday is the “Innovation & Entrepreneurship Summit” of the TU Wien. It offers the unique opportunity to get in contact with an entrepreneurial interested audience consisting of scientists, students, industry representatives, investors, funding agencies and enthusiasts of the startup ecosystem and to network cross-disciplinary.

The role of the university in assessing economical and societal risks of innovation

Like every year, the first part of this tripartite event as regards content focuses on a relevant topic in the context of Entrepreneurial University and entrepreneurial ecosystem. This year selected experts will discuss about „Business models at the limit of the technically feasible – the role of universities in assessing economical and societal risks of innovation“. New business models often aim at cost reduction or new services enabled by the use of existing technologies. In addition, there are start-ups founded on newly developed technical innovations. Such innovations are suitable for realizing a sustainable advantage over competitors, which promises high returns. However, they present potential investors with significant challenges. While the assessment of the market potential of an innovation can be supported by well-known approaches of market research, the assessment of the technical feasibility is much more difficult. This applies in particular to innovations that are presented as a result of new scientific findings. The assessment of new scientific knowledge is done usually in an anonymized peer review process. Company founders who rely on science-based innovation may have reasons not to promote their ideas through scientific publications in detail. In these cases, the question arises as to how a trustworthy assessment of innovations can be made. A series of spectacular misjudgments, most recently the case of the initially very successful start-up of the American founder Elizabeth Holmes (Founder and ex-CEO of Theranos), shows that this is not a marginal problem. Insufficient appraisals of innovative products not only lead to a misallocation of investment funds, they are also likely to damage the confidence in start ups in general. Ultimately, innovations that are substantiated by not yet sufficiently confirmed results of scientific research can only be assessed by appropriately qualified scientists. Against this background, universities face a number of difficult questions. Is it part of the social responsibility of the university to provide its research competence for the assessment of business models? How should such review processes be organized so that they meet a high standard of objectivity? How are such achievements of individual scientists as well as corresponding offers of the university to remunerate? These and other questions will be discussed in a panel discussion.

TU Wien Innovation Roadshow
The second part of the event is dedicated to the exhibition of outstanding TU Wien innovations. TU Wien scientists and students will exhibit their patents, research results, research work, and spin-outs/startups. Thus, important contacts for the next steps in the individual endeavor can be made. Enjoy a relaxed atmosphere and food while networking.

i2c STARTacademy Pitch-Challenge
In the afternoon, the projects of the STARTacademy 2019, the start-up bootcamp for scientific spin-outs, recently awarded the European Enterprise Promotion Award, will be pitching their developed business models to a prestigious jury for the first time and compete for prizes totaling € 30,000. Afterward, we will celebrate together with the awarded winners in a relaxed finale.

Please note the limited number of participants! Registrations will be ranked according to their arrival.

***Note: There is no fee, but registration is required. During the event, photographic and video material will be taken. Please inform the TUW Innovation Incubation team at the registration in case you do not agree with appearing in this material. The photographic and video material taken at the event will be used by i²c for printed and electronic media, including the Internet, for publication, education, lectures, radio, public performances, exhibitions or other promotional purposes.***