Student entrepreneurs from Aarhus University, Université Paris Cité and UCLouvain recently completed part of their entrepreneurial internship in various incubators located in Denmark, France and Belgium, respectively.
Launched by a team of Circle U. academic chairs and leads – Amélie Jacquemin (UCLouvain), Morten Foss, Merethe Kruse (both from Aarhus University), Viktória Nagy and Nicolas Lomenie (both from Université Paris Cité) – this international mobility project aimed to introduce student entrepreneurs to various entrepreneurial ecosystems. This initiative was possible thanks to the funding provided through a seed funding programme made available by Université Paris Cité and geared towards projects in education, research, student life, pedagogical innovation, entrepreneurship, meeting at least one of the Circle U. objectives and involving at least two Circle U. universities as well as their associated partners.
Exchanging Knowledge while developing Interpersonal Skills
At Aarhus university, the student entrepreneurs visited the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO) (inano.au.dk) and discussed marketing, branding and packaging issues with other students and coaches at the Kitchen incubator.
Next stop was at Université Paris Cité, where they got the chance to discover Station F (stationf.co) (the world’s biggest start-up campus) and took part in an entrepreneurial escape game organised by the Pépite Créaj IDF (univ-paris13.fr).
The final stage of their journey was on 15 and 16 June at UCLouvain. They met other student entrepreneurs and had a workshop on the art of pitching at the Yncubator (yncubator.be) and discussed prototyping issues at the OpenHub (FabLab) (openhub.be). They also visited a brewery founded by UCLouvain alumni.
Franck Durigneux, a student entrepreneur at UCLouvain who took part in this project, said: “We learnt how to launch a business while being aware of developing it step by step and paying attention to the various mistakes that can be made. What's more, we received a lot of advice on development, marketing and prototype design from the various people we met, and we were able to talk to them about each other's projects. The exchanges between the students enabled us to discover and understand different cultures, to learn more about each other and also to develop various interpersonal skills.”
We asked him what he took out of this experience: “What I took away from the experience was the fact that we touched on and discussed different areas related to entrepreneurship, so it wasn't at all redundant in terms of information and activities. The people we met all had different backgrounds and were experts in their own fields.”
Deni Isic, one of the founders of Uniclub (uniclub.io), a Danish start-up helping students organise their stays abroad at universities around exchange agreements, said:
“The experience can provide students with invaluable entrepreneurial skills, a global network, and possibly even lead to the creation of successful start-ups.”
What’s Next?
This project included three of the nine Circle U. universities. The ambition is to have student entrepreneurs from the nine Circle U. on board. The organisers are currently exploring the possibility of scaling-up this initiative.
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