□ An educational program has been launched for the propagation of entrepreneurial spirit among researchers affiliated with research institutes located in Gwangju City and Jeonnam Province and funded by the national government, provincial government, or private corporations; the program is intended to encourage researchers holding superior technologies to actively embark on the path to start-ups.

 

 

□ GIST (President: Dr. Young Joon Kim) established its Entrepreneurship Education Center in the first half of this year in order to imbue those holding technologies with entrepreneurial spirit and to promote start-ups as a new growth engine to stimulate the regional economy.  The Center’s “Power Program,” designed to provide stepwise education on entrepreneurial spirit and technological start-ups, held its first educational session on June 26.

 

Since bold entrepreneurship is essential for invigorating technological start-ups that will lead the regional economy, GIST and the MSIF (Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning) have established the Center to provide researchers of the region with systematic education on entrepreneurship.

 

□ The “Power Program” of GIST Entrepreneurship Education Center is to be operated until the end of this year with a 3-step educational contents consisting of the basics, the intensive, and the real life.  The goal is to equip future founders and CEO’s of technological start-ups with basic knowledge and a realistic understanding about running a company and to train them to think more proactively and independently.

 

The first step, Basic Course on Entrepreneurship, has been launched to teach the basics of entrepreneurship and how to link superior technologies with commercialization.  This 8-week course is to cover such topics as basic entrepreneurship, opportunity recognition and innovation, technological start-ups and business strategy, and technology commercialization.

 

The second step, Intensive Course on Entrepreneurship, will follow the first step and will focus on setting up business models by blueprinting the flow of product, service, and information and by defining potential profit and various revenue sources.  The second course will utilize disruptive innovative business model game and one-on-one mentoring and will cover such topics as market analysis for technology commercialization, setting up and feasibility testing of business models, and drawing up business plans.

 

The third step, Real Life Course on Entrepreneurship, will follow with the goal of mutually exchanging and complementing technologies and creating new technologies through convergence.  To that end, an atmosphere of successful technology commercialization will be cultivated and active networking will be supported to invigorate technological exchanges.  The course will cover such topics as technological development and patent analysis, value assessment and commercialization review, new technology creation through convergence, and business plan finalization.

 

□ Director Hae-deug Roh of GIST Business Incubator said, “The nurturing and promotion of entrepreneurial spirit is an essential factor needed for invigorating the regional economy and realizing a creative economy; we hope students, researchers, and industry practitioners will actively participate in our program to get the encouragement for founding start-ups and learn the basic knowledge about company operations.”  “To spread entrepreneurial spirit in our region, we will keep contributing to the cultivation of a start-up ecosystem by developing and operating various hands-on, experience-based programs,” he added.