Top Female Founders Summer School
Spearheading a pan-European initiative to empower female students and future entrepreneurs in healthcare innovation, securing funding and coordinating curriculum development and delivery from 2022 to 2025.
Project Overview 🚀
The Top Female Founders Summer School was a dynamic educational programme designed to empower female students and future entrepreneurs with innovative ideas to tackle significant healthcare challenges. Running from 2022 through 2025, this initiative was a strategic collaboration between prominent academic institutions and industry leaders across Europe, including Boehringer Ingelheim RCV, University of Coimbra, IESE Business School, Heidelberg University, Riga Stradiņš University, INiTS, and BDO Healthcare. The core mission focused on fostering innovation within the healthcare sector, particularly aligning with Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being), while actively addressing the underrepresentation of women in the start-up ecosystem.
My Role: From Concept to Execution 🛠️
I played a pivotal role in bringing this impactful project to life and ensuring its success over three years. My key contributions included:
- Initiation: I conceived the initial idea for the summer school, recognizing the need to specifically support and equip aspiring female entrepreneurs within the unique context of healthcare.
- Funding Acquisition: I successfully led the application process to secure crucial funding from EIT Health, demonstrating the project’s potential and strategic alignment with European innovation goals.
- Project Coordination (2022-2025): For three consecutive years, I served as the central coordinator. This involved:
- Curriculum Development: Overseeing the design and refinement of the educational content, ensuring it addressed the specific needs and challenges faced by female founders in healthcare. This included modules on identifying healthcare needs, value-based healthcare, entrepreneurship, design thinking, business model innovation, stakeholder alignment, and project management.
- Programme Delivery: Managing the logistical and operational aspects of the blended learning format, which combined intensive online e-learning sessions (including live sessions) with an immersive onsite week in Vienna, Austria.
- Stakeholder Management: Liaising between the diverse group of academic and industrial partners across Europe to ensure cohesive collaboration and a high-quality experience for participants.
Programme Highlights & Impact ✨
The summer school offered a unique blended learning experience. Participants engaged in online modules covering foundational concepts before converging in Vienna for intensive group work, mentorship, leadership development, and pitching sessions.
Key elements designed to empower participants included:
- Tailored Learning: Content specifically addressed challenges commonly faced by female founders.
- Strategy Toolkit: Provided guidance on identifying and creating cutting-edge healthcare solutions.
- Business Literacy: Covered essential economics and strategies for securing capital.
- Communication Skills: Focused on building confidence for successful pitching.
- Unique Network: Offered access to mentors and leaders from big pharma, academia, consultancy, and patient organisations.
The programme garnered significant interest, receiving over two hundred applications in its 2023 iteration alone. It successfully equipped participants with vital skills and fostered a strong support network, leading to tangible outcomes, such as the creation of health-tech start-ups like Flowtion, which originated directly from the summer school.