CERN-BIC Screening Week Edition 2020

The 1st Edition of the CERN-BIC Screening Week with Austrian Students was successfully held in Geneva.

The BIC Screening Week is a programme in cooperation of CERN and accent. Inspired by the NTNU Screening Week which CERN and the Norwegian Technical University have been operating for years, the BIC Screening Week was designed for the very first time in 2020.

Its aim is to stimulate the foundation of new, technology oriented high impact startups and raise awareness for the importance of transferring technological knowledge into products and services hands-on. For the potential future launch of 5 concrete startups, four Austrian teams and one Dutch team have been selected. The Austrian teams consist of overall 16 selected students from the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten, the Austrian Marketing University of Applied Sciences and IMC FH Krems.

Within the kickoff-workshop in November 2019 each team decided on one specific CERN technology to follow up and consequently evaluate its commercial potential. The programme requires each team to take over the perspective of a potential startup by leading the whole ideation and validation process. When it comes to team building and facilitating the process, each team is supported by its own university mentor as well as a mentor from a market-proven startup. CERN representatives provide contact with technical experts.

Information Security students under the mentorship of Martin Pirker exploring possible applications of C2MON together with mentor Robert Luh at the kickoff workshop in the Palais Lower Austria.

Credits: J. Uhlik

Information Security students under the mentorship of Martin Pirker

Student preparations cumulated in the BIC Screening Week at CERN, which was carried out from February 9th – 14th, 2020. Right in this innovation stimulating working environment, the students got the space to focus fully on their emerging business ideas. The agenda, prepared by CERN’s Silje Uhlen Maurset, foresaw different activities to carry out feasibility studies and talk to external experts worldwide.

Much of the students’ attention was paid to market size and growth, especially possible customer segments and value chains, the business model and marketing, as well as first provisions on finances, targeting the economic potential and investment needs. In a follow-up, the students are currently assessing if their business ideas have the potential to be transferred to company launches.

The BIC will share the insights and experiences the students have gained. Among the most exciting outcomes is definitely the upcoming foundation of the start-up Apocrat which focuses on IoT devices in combination with the CERN software ROOT.