TESLA will implement a unique collaborative  research & training network with 8 academic beneficiaries 11 industrial partners, gathering participants with expertise in a vibrant multidisciplinary training-through-research

15 Ph.D. students (Early-Stage Researchers – ESRs) have been recruited within the network. Our ESRs will participate in a series of networking events including traditional academic summer schools and workshops arranged by the network beneficiaries. In addition to these planned events TESLA will develop dedicated network training which will focus on complementary skills training.

Innovation Training Event

As part of TESLA’s Innovation Triangle Initiative (IΔI) and as a follow-up to the successful kickoff hosted by UPNA, an online Innovation Training Event took place in September 2020. The event was organized in the form of a two-day online workshop by the Institute of Microwave and Photonic Engineering at TU Graz and was implemented using the well-proven conferencing system of UNILIM, underlining the good collaboration among the TESLA beneficiaries.

In accordance with the sub-title “Entrepreneurship, Exploitation of Results, and IP Issues” the workshop covered the topics intellectual property rights, invention, patentability, patent law, and key elements of entrepreneurship. Lecturers from the TU Graz Research & Technology House showed the TESLA ESRs the advantages and disadvantages of different patent application procedures and illustrated the financial and legal effects of patent applications. Speakers from the Institute of General Management and Organisation at TU Graz focused on personality traits of entrepreneurs highlighting the role of a founding team, and elaborated on the concept of Lean Startup, a methodology for developing businesses that was presented to the ESRs already at the IΔI-kickoff event. Moreover, an academic startup accelerator was presented.

In addition, the head of the Institute of Microwave and Photonic Engineering outlined trends in microwave frond-end technologies and the CEO of the TESLA partner organisation Lithoz GmbH, described the company history and the impressive transition from a university spin-off to a leading provider for additive manufacturing of high performance ceramics.

Such success stories are inspiring for PhD students and thus, related to the IΔI, the idea of a presentation series was launched in which university spin-off companies in the space sector share their experience with the TESLA ESRs. Besides valuable technical know-how and business insights, the discussion with company representatives as part of the series offers possibilities for networking and future cooperation.