Funding
Business Encounters: Life Scientist is being developed by Clinical Tools, Inc (CTI) with funding from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (Grant #1 R43 GM131458-01). We gratefully acknowledge this support, which was the sole funding source for this project’s development.
No Industry Support
All materials on this website were developed in an industry-fund-free environment. No industry funding was used to create this website or these educational activities.
Target Audience
Women graduate students, post-docs, early-stage life science researchers with a minimal level of entrepreneurial self-awareness, interest, and confidence. Many experiences offered on this site are accessible to all life scientists at any point in their careers, however.
What does this site include in “Life Sciences?”
We use the term “Life Sciences” loosely to include agriculture, biological sciences, biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology, immunology, medical devices, microbiology, neuroscience, pharmacology, toxicology, pharmaceutics, and any other sciences in the biotechnology and biomedical industries. We also emphasize concerns common for women in the industry. However, other scientists and entrepreneurs may benefit from the information presented.
Purpose
The Business Encounters: Life Scientist experience uniquely helps women graduate students, post-docs, early-stage life science researchers with a minimal level of entrepreneurial self-awareness, interest, and confidence explore factors that impact entrepreneurial intent and self-efficacy. Established researchers will also benefit from the curated, tailored resources.
Focus
Based on the results of a needs analysis with both the target audience and women entrepreneurs at various stages in the life sciences, our focus is on issues they identified as important for women life scientists to build successful careers as entrepreneurs, including communications skills and understanding entrepreneurship.
Impact
Business Encounters: Life Scientist is paced to the scientist’s needs, focuses on instilling entrepreneurial intent and self-efficacy. The impact varies with career stage from raising awareness of early-career scientists that entrepreneurship is a potential career path to guiding scientists at later career stages in the steps they would need to take to launch a business to translate their research ideas into products. The brief scenarios, inspirational stories, and curated resources are packaged in brief experiences that do not take time away from time-critical and demanding bench work or other tasks, including grant writing.
Dissemination
Clinical Tools, and its gaming division Health Impact Studio, strives to share knowledge gained through the testing and use of its products. You can see our latest conference presentations, as well as our published research articles, at the Health Impact Studio site.
Plans
During our continued development, we will be focusing Business Encounters: Life Scientist on simulating the common steps a life scientist may encounter when pursuing entrepreneurship. Through these simulated experiences, life scientists can learn about the entrepreneurial process and gain confidence in pursuing their ideas in the business world.
After completion of the project, we envision that Business Encounters: Life Scientist will be sold to entrepreneurial support organizations both inside and outside the university community, providing a digital support tool for inspiring early career life scientists to consider entrepreneurship as a career path or to guide life scientists interested in pursuing entrepreneurship with their ideas. This source of revenue will support any ongoing work needed to refine the product and allow free use for life scientists through their organizations.
Have questions or suggestions?
Health Impact Studio
Bradley Tanner, MD, ME
Studio Head, Health Impact Studio
Bradley Tanner, MD, ME is a psychiatrist and Studio Head of Health Impact Studio. In this role, he guides the development and evaluation of novel technological solutions to address health challenges including burnout, stress, and depression seen in medical students, residents, and practicing physicians in their early and later careers.
