Developing entrepreneurship skills for chemistry students

Turning new scientific knowledge into products and services that can both solve problems and generate profit is one of the biggest challenges that entrepreneurial researchers face. Whether planning a career in industry or aiming to create an innovative start-up, it’s important students are equipped with entrepreneurship skills. Companies want new recruits to begin applying their chemistry knowledge to real world situations immediately and for those pursuing an academic career, showing commercial impact is an effective way to advance. The additional income from any spin-out company or patent license is also welcomed by universities – the University of Oxford is estimated to have earned £143 million from the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, and the University of Florida has made more than $300 million from the precursor to the modern sports drinks industry – Gatorade.