Who are the instructors?

MI-GTEA is taught by local and national investors, indus­try experts and uni­ver­sity fac­ulty. MI-GTEA pro­vides a frame­work for uni­ver­si­ties to build a net­work between their research and the invest­ment com­mu­nity. It com­bines a com­pre­hen­sive cur­ricu­lum based on build­ing a busi­ness with hands-on exer­cises for sci­ence and engi­neer­ing researchers to learn tech­nol­ogy com­mer­cial­iza­tion, new busi­ness devel­op­ment, nav­i­ga­tion of intel­lec­tual prop­erty and tech­nol­ogy trans­fer, devel­op­ment and val­i­da­tion of poten­tial oppor­tu­ni­ties for com­mer­cial­iza­tion, and inte­gra­tion of research and entrepreneurship.

What is included in the curriculum?

Atten­dees expe­ri­ence a rig­or­ous train­ing course in entre­pre­neur­ship best prac­tices that com­bines lec­tures, read­ings and hands-on par­tic­i­pa­tion, men­tor­ship and net­work­ing. We clar­ify the com­mer­cial­iza­tion of tech­nol­ogy and the devel­op­ment of an early stage busi­ness. MI-GTEA cul­ti­vates suc­cess by set­ting up a sup­port net­work of top tier men­tors and national instruc­tors that will per­sist long after the training.

Researchers will receive an in-depth view of how to val­i­date their tech­nol­ogy, mar­ket and busi­ness as well as learn how to build a team and their com­pany. They will also receive guid­ance on such key top­ics as how to pro­tect intel­lec­tual prop­erty and how to raise invest­ment capital.

What is the focus of the program?

The prin­ci­pal focus of MI-GTEA is the entre­pre­neur­ial edu­ca­tion of uni­ver­sity fac­ulty and doc­toral stu­dents, yet a major ben­e­fit is the net­work­ing oppor­tu­nity it pro­vides across the uni­ver­sity and busi­ness com­mu­ni­ties. By bring­ing in ven­ture cap­i­tal­ists, angel investors, and indus­try experts to teach key ses­sions, the par­tic­i­pants will have sig­nif­i­cant oppor­tu­nity to get to know top investors and key play­ers that will be inte­gral to their suc­cess as they move for­ward with a business.

Investors and indus­try experts gain the oppor­tu­nity to meet top researchers and view the top clean tech­nolo­gies com­ing. They will help cre­ate a plat­form to move clean­tech research out of Michigan’s uni­ver­sity lab and into the marketplace.