Research Ventures in Social Science Workshop

The Challenge

Previous feedback from Social Science PhDs and Early Career Researchers suggest they don’t feel prepared or supported to be enterprising in their research and make their academic interests and skills transferrable into the private sector.

The Solution

We worked with entrepreneurial training consultants at Skillfluence to create a two-day workshop aimed to equip Social Science PhDs and Early Career Researchers to be more enterprising in their research impacts and encourage them to recognise their business transferrable skills and build new capabilities.

Thirty-six participants from nine Universities attended the workshop, which delivered a first of its kind cross-institution programme for social sciences in Scotland. Throughout the two days, participants learnt key tools and steps to build a start-up, and resources /support structures available in the Scottish entrepreneurial eco-system.

Socially driven businesses from across Scotland spoke about their opportunities and challenges as entrepreneurs in a Q&A discussion. The event culminated with each group pitching their mock-company idea to an expert panel, with awards for best presentation and most viable company.

The Outcome

Feedback for the workshop was very positive, with 81% of participants giving the programme an overall score of very good+.

An example of participant feedback is the following:

“This workshop was amazing and was able to give provide knowledge, skills, experience, hope and confidence in possible social science ventures”

Attendees left feeling more confident in their abilities to translate their academic skills into business terms, and had a better picture of how to incorporate entrepreneurial methods into their work. The workshop was so successful that there are plans to run a similar programme again.

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