Examination arrangement

Course content

The topic of the course is research-based innovation. This includes your role as an innovator, the academic cornerstones of innovation and entrepreneurial behaviour relating to the skills needed to contribute to innovation within an engineering context. Contemporary innovation is multifaceted, cross-industrial and multi-disciplinary. It can take place in startups, within companies, or in close interaction between academic institutions and industry. The course is based on the participants' research goals and will use these as cases - as well as the explanation of the innovation potential in this as a starting point.

It is recommended that the PhD candidate attend the course during the third or fourth semester.

This course is only for PhD candidates at IV-Faculty

Learning outcome

Innovation competence involves understanding innovation and innovation processes. Innovation is created in different contexts and there are different forms of innovation. The course covers expectations for role and innovation in society - and expectations of academia. A key goal of the course is to increase the understanding of innovation and innovation processes to enable the participants to identify a potential pathway for realisation of own research.

Knowledge

Insight into different methods, theory, techniques and tools that can be used in different innovation processes will be central. Examples of this are:

• Understand how research can add value to society through innovation processes.
• Engineers as drivers of innovation
• Research methods and innovation
• Introduction to concepts and standards used in innovation.
• Different types of innovations - innovation related to products, processes, services and business models.
• Knowledge of intellectual property rights (IP and IPR)
• Innovation ethics - Sustainable innovation.
• The importance of value chains for innovation

Skills

The course will promote knowledge that must form the basis for innovation work. Examples of this are:

• Assessment of probable impact (ex ante) of research on a societal level.
• Documentation of impact (ex post) of research on a societal level.
• Knowledge of patent searches.

• Knowledge of underlying laws and mechanisms to protect different types of intellectual property (IP).
• Contracting strategies for cooperation/consortium agreements.
• Technology maturity models and assessment of status of maturity through innovation processes.
• Management of innovation processes, typically through stage/gate models

Innovation at NTNU takes place within an innovation ecosystem. Successful innovation processes within the framework offered by NTNU depend on knowledge of this ecosystem. Items that will be covered in the course include:

• Funding mechanisms and resources available at NTNU.
• The role of NTNU TTO in a commercialising process (DOFI).
• Balancing Open Science and commercialisation.

Definition of a value proposal is an essential part of an innovation process. The course will cover a selection of key topics of a value proposal. These include:

• Defining and presenting value proposition
• Presenting the business case
• Communication with non-scientific decision-makers (like investors)
• The art of the pitch

• Overall competencies

  Ability to reflect on own research practice and own role as an innovator.

• This course is open only for PhD candidates at IV Faculty. The course will be run if at least 8 students with relevant background wish to attend. If you wish to attend, please contact the course coordinator.

Learning methods and activities

The course is offered in the autumn semester.

The course is based on a combination of lectures, class discussions, presentations and workshops. The oral presentation - oral exam - will be based on analysis of the innovation potential in own research. The student is expected to take an important role in developing his/her own and others' knowledge in the subject.

The candidates shall before the workshops starts, read selected practical oriented entrepreneurship literature. This will be distributed at the start of the semester.

Compulsory assignments

• Participation at workshop

Further on evaluation

The assessment is based on an oral exam that is assessed as pass/fail. The oral exam will be based on an extended sales pitch related to your own research project. The candidates must participate in the mandatory workshops leading up to the oral exam.