THE “ENTREPRISES ET CITES” ENDOWMENT FUND SUPPORTS THE HEALTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING PROGRAMME

Launched in September 2019 by the University of Lille and Eurasanté, the “Health Entrepreneurship” university degree programme is a springboard for scientists/researchers, entrepreneurs, health professionals and students wanting to run a business in the health sector by creating or joining an innovative startup in the biotech/pharmaceutical, medtech or e-health sectors. Maintaining its commitment to supporting enterprise creation and skills development in the Hauts-de-France region, the Enterprises et Cités endowment fund has signed an agreement with the University of Lille to support the Health Entrepreneurship training programme by donating 50,000 euros in 2020.

Created by the University of Lille and Eurasanté, the Health Entrepreneurship programme is a real springboard for entrepreneurs in the health sector and ensures that participants have all the skills they need before launching a new activity. This course was the result of an observation that very few existing entrepreneurship training courses specifically addressed scientists and offered a mixture of theory and practice, including immersion within companies. The same is true for CEOs and business developers who often have no scientific training and strive to understand the wide range of specific features of the health sector (biotech, pharma, medtech, e-health, etc.) - very little training is on offer.

Entreprises et Cités, through its entrepreneurship and societal endowment fund is becoming a sponsor of the “Health Entrepreneurship” University degree programme. “By supporting this training, we want to put our resources to use for the creation of innovative companies in the health sector, encourage young graduates and doctoral students to become entrepreneurs, and support the excellent training offered by the University of Lille” explains Jean-Pierre Letartre, President of the Entreprises et Cités endowment fund.

For the University of Lille, this support is the sign that this new training course responds to real economic needs: “Launching a company in the health sector requires both scientific and entrepreneurial skills which are difficult to reconcile within a single profile. Often driven by researchers, health startups need to develop complementary commercial skills. The perfect ‘researcher/business developer’ is hard to establish and to maintain. With the Health Entrepreneurship programme, we are hoping to create a new generation of innovative company managers, to contribute towards the economic development of the region.”, says Jean-Christophe Camart, President of the University of Lille.

Building on the success of the first graduates of the training programme, the new student recruitment campaign will begin in March 2020 for the academic year beginning in September 2020.

Find out more about the programme