Yesterday, the University of Zielona Góra launched a two-day workshop titled “Defining Market Potential”, attended by the winners of the UZ Venture Studio competition. Three teams, selected based on jury evaluations, are participating in the training. The workshops are designed to enhance the business competences of the project teams. Participants are working on areas related to market analysis, customer segmentation, and the evaluation of opportunities and risks associated with their projects.
– During the two-day workshop, we will also develop the business models of the selected projects, preparing teams for the next stage – direct meetings with business partners who have declared their interest in participating and validating the projects, says Ignacy Studziński, Venture Architect at The Heart.
– We are hopeful for fruitful collaboration, a strong dose of expert knowledge, and, most importantly, for strengthening the competences of the team members and bringing the projects closer to market commercialization.
One of the selected projects is a polarimetric sensor, co-developed by Dr. Magdalena Szkudlarek from the Janusz Gil Institute of Astronomy at UZ.
– We are very happy that our project qualified for the competition. We submitted two proposals, and one of them was chosen. It focuses on astrometric and polarimetric studies of space debris – a highly relevant topic. We’re excited to develop a startup with the UZ Venture Studio team. We expect the program to guide us step-by-step, as we lack experience in building startups and hope for professional support. We already know which industry partners we’ll be collaborating with, and that’s also a valuable experience for us, said Dr. Szkudlarek.
The second project, BuzzVerse, is a modular system for remote environmental monitoring, created by students from the BuzzVerse Scientific Association at the University of Zielona Góra, supervised by Dr. Eng. Anna Pławiak-Mowna, UZ Professor at the Institute of Control and Information Systems.
– We’re very excited to have been chosen as one of the three UZ Venture Studio finalists. We hope to learn a lot – we know there’s plenty of work ahead, both on the business side and on the technical development of the project. We’re very grateful for this opportunity, said Olaf Bykowski, a member of the student team.
– We hope that UZ Venture Studio will help us develop our project towards commercialization. Entering the business world is what we’re currently missing and need most. Our project has been in development for two years, and now we want to take it to market. Our association mainly focuses on radio technologies and designing electronic boards. Our goal is to create a modular system for long-range radio communication and sensor data transmission – without access to electricity or the internet, added Krystian Wybranowski, another team member.
The third project selected for the final is Locum – a platform connecting medical professionals with short-term job opportunities in Poland (MOBIMEDI). One of the co-authors of the project is Kinga Żmuda, a newly graduated doctor from UZ.
– I’m very glad to be a finalist in the UZ Venture Studio competition and to have the chance to develop the project I submitted. It’s an initiative designed to support the healthcare system, which in some areas isn’t functioning as it should. We want to help solve this problem, and with the support of professionals, we hope to build a project that operates at full capacity and achieves success, said Kinga.
The UZ Venture Studio project is run by the UZ Center for Scientific Excellence, the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer, and the business partner The Heart. The initiative aims to commercialize science in an effective and repeatable way by launching new tech startups directly aligned with business needs.
