Info Desk for Bio&MedTech Fellowships

Congratulations to your UZH Entrepreneur Fellowship!

Here, you will find all the information you need to know about the Entrepreneur Fellowship program.

Please note that all onboarding documents and reports need to be uploaded to the   Good Grants platform.

You will receive notifications through the platform, inlcuding the relevant templates and deadlines, whenever a document or report needs to be submitted.

Onboarding

Stage I: Fellowship administration

• Receive the Letter of Approval with the General Terms and Release of Funds document via mail.
• Browse through this InfoDesk website to learn more about the process and resources available.
• Ask your HR officer to request a new employment or a mutation of an existing employment via eHR (electronic processing of personnel affairs) so that your employment payments can be drawn from your fellowship funding account. The request via eHR must include a PDF of the Letter of Approval.
• Complete, sign and submit the Release of Funds document after going through the  General Terms.

Stage II: Product Lab

• Participate in the Product Lab and develop a solid plan for the fellowship.

Stage III: Fellow profile and welcome post

• Provide a profile text for your fellow web profile and welcome post on LinkedIn.

Project Start

Stage IV: Project & Budget plan, support programs

• Hand in your updated Project plan and Budget plan (XLSX, 70 KB) one month after the start of your Fellowship. Your budget should contain comments on any changes since your application. If you have received any additional funding that will be used for the project, please include this.
• During the first month of the Fellowship, set a first meeting with your techtransfer manager at Unitectra to lay out a plan for regular exchange throughout the funding period. If no regular exchange is needed, the project is to schedule an update with Unitectra every six months.
• Plan your participation in the training modules of the BioEntrepreneurship and Innovation program (BEI). The participation in the full program is compulsory for every fellow.
• Contact the lab manager of the UZH IncubatorLab to understand how you may use this resource during your Fellowship

Project Midterm

Stage V: Interim Report and Review Meeting

• Submit the Interim Report (DOCX, 113 KB) and an updated timeline plan and financial report (XLSX, 70 KB) five months after you started your Fellowship.
• We will reach out to schedule a Review Meeting six months into your Fellowship. At the meeting, representatives from all units of the support program and your mentor will be present.

• Prepare a 10 min project update. Share how you have progressed on the work to close the gaps towards the goal of your project. Guidelines will be provided by the Innovation Hub Office.

Project End

Stage VI: Fellowship completion

• Close Account: Make sure that all your bills are settled and that the account is not overdrawn. If we do not hear from you, we will close your account 30 days after your fellowship has ended.
• Final report: No longer than 6 weeks after your funding has ended we ask you to complete the Final Report. 
• Leaving UZH: If the ending of your Fellowship means that you are also leaving the university, please get in contact with your HR responsible for the correct procedure in your institute.
• Also, make sure that we have a valid email adress so that we can contact you for updates and events in the next years.

All fellows take part in the BioEntrepreneurship & Innovation (BEI) Program offered by the Institute for Regenerative Medicine (IREM). In this program you will learn the fundamentals of starting up a company in the area of BioTech and MedTech and you will develop your entrepreneurial and leadership skills. Additionally, the many input sessions with experts help you to establish a network and to connect with potential industry partners.

The two modules A and B are consecutive and participation in the full training program is compulsory for every fellow. If there are any issue concerning the timing of the modules in relation to your fellowship, you must contact us in due time.

All fellows are supported by the Translational Medicine Accelerator (TMA). Experienced coaches provide you with professional expertise in project management and business development . They can support you on topics such as fundraising, team building, recruitment, governance and outsourcing etc. Every fellow is requested to schedule a first meeting with TMA during the first two weeks of the fellowship.

Contact Michio Painter to schedule your first meeting!

Unitectra is the Technology Transfer Office of the University of Zurich. They will support you on commercialization issues, such as the protection of intellectual property (patents, trademarks, copyright) and the creation of spin-off companies. Unitectra is also your negotiation partner for the license to use UZH patents. We advice you to meet with Unitectra at the beginning of the fellowship to lay out a plan for exchange throughout the funding period.

Contact Wolfgang Henggeler or your assigned Techtrans manager to schedule a first meeting!

The event series aims to foster exchange among the UZH Innovation Community. It gives Grantees and Fellows the opportunity to get feedback on their projects from a diverse audience, network and make use of synergies and experiences. The event focuses on internal exchange within UZH Innovation Hub community (Entrepreneur Fellows, Innovation Grantees, Coaches and researchers interested currently preparing to apply for these programs). 

The event program features finishing Innovation Grantees sharing key takeaways, introduction of new Entrepreneur Fellows, an inspirational interview with a startup founder, and lots of networking opportunities that allows to connect with peers and coaches. 

We strongly recommend Entrepreneur Fellows to visit at least two of the three events we organize per year. The dates are published here: Agenda

As an UZH Entrepreneur Fellow you can be granted access to the UZH IncubatorLab. This fully equipped research infrastructure is a shared MedTech and BioTech laboratory space hosted by the Institute for Regenerative Medicine and located at the Bio-Technopark in Schlieren. The lab host quarterly meetings for all Entrepreneur Fellows with expert input on relevant topics.

Send an email to the lab manager to find out more about this offer.

If you wish to discuss any questions or obtain feedback on issues regarding financing and accounting issues (financial planning, valuation, projections, budgeting, etc.), feel free to contact David Oesch to schedule a meeting. David Oesch is Professor for Financial Accounting, Department of Business Administration at the University of Zurich.

The TMA can support you with basic legal considerations and can put you in contact with a lawyer to draft legal documents regarding your startup project. Send an email to Michio Painter to find out how they can help!

Note that any documents concerning collaboration between the university of Zurich and external parties are handles by Unitectra.

Please follow these instructions for how to refer to the Entrepreneur Fellowship in your communication on slides, website, social media, publications etc.

Slides and Website

Use the Entrepreneur Fellowship Logo (PNG, 57 KB)

Posts on LinkedIn

Tag the UZH Innovation Hub LinkedIn profil

Publications

(You find the reference number on your Letter of Approval.)

Regulatory

Regulatory consulting – Digital Trial Intervention Platform | ETH Zurich

UZH Innovation Hub Community

Join our UZH Innovation News channel on Microsoft teams to stay updated about events and offerings around Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Zurich.

As soon as you have incporporated a company based on your Entrepreneur Fellowship you can apply for the UZH Startup Label.

Go to application form.

The UZH Entrepreneur Fellowship recipients are required to submit an interim report 5 months after the project start. We ask you to submit a final report within 6 weeks after successful completion of the fellowship.

Why reports are so important

• Opportunity for you to reflect on the progress of your project
• A basis for the review meeting and an opportunity for you to get holistic feedback and advice from all units of the support program
• Source of information to help us improve the UZH Entrepreneur Fellowship program
• Source for statistics that are vital to ensure funding of future fellowships

We try to keep the reporting lean and only ask questions that are really relevant to understand the progress of your project or for us to understand how well the program works. All reports are confidential and we do not share any content of the report with third party without your consent.

We're very open to feedback on how we can improve even more the usefulness of reports.