Online Course – Free – Oct 3 → Nov 14, 2025
This brand-new course offers an exciting journey of discovery. Learn from experts Food Biotech, Biomedicine, AI and Creative Industries and from entrepreneurs how to work together to create innovative solutions for real world problems.
- When: 3 Oct to 14 Nov 2025, every Friday morning
- How: An international 20-hours online course intersecting Food Biotech, Biomedicine, AI and Creative Industries with entrepreneurship competences and tools, which includes a case challenge based on real problems.
- For: Students, academic and non-academic staff, and professionals from different knowledge areas.
- Fee: Free!
- Plus: Be eligible to a 2,000€ award.
Register Now
Course Overview
This international and multidisciplinary unique course is designed to train future entrepreneurs across diverse knowledge areas – food biotechnology, biomedicine, artificial intelligence, and the creative and cultural industries.
Students will attend sessions on different core knowledge areas with an applied perspective, entrepreneurial training, mentoring, and teamwork, with plenty of time for discussion and questions. The course is framed within a case competition, where students will work in teams to deliver a final pitch for their innovative idea, supported by dedicated mentors.
This will prepare students with knowledge-based concepts and entrepreneurial skills and tools for developing innovative solutions across different sectors.
With this course you can:
Course Details
The online program will be offered in English, every Friday morning, from the 3rd of October to the 14th of November. The total contact time will be 20 hours, and will vary per week, depending on the schedule for the selected core areas.
The 20 hours will include a common component of 14 hours plus 6 elected hours. After an introduction to the course structure and the case challenges to all students, you will select two core topics (3 hours each) among Food Biotechnology, Artificial Intelligence, Biomedicine, and Creative Industries (totaling 6 hours). This will be complemented by essential topics to all participants, including Technology Transfer, Entrepreneurship Tools and Competences, Mentoring, and Pitch Preparation.
By selecting core topics that complement their academic or professional background, participants from diverse fields will combine their strengths to apply creative thinking and problem-solving to a real-world challenge, making use of entrepreneurial skills and mentoring to develop, in a team, a solution to one case challenge. The teams will be selected after the first session and will include 3 to 5 members.
Core Topics for selection (6h)
Biotechnology (3h)
- Bioeconomy as an opportunity for sustainable entrepreneurship
- Valorization of agrifood waste into high-value products
- Practical cases and development of competitive business solutions
Artificial Intelligence (3h)
- Introduction to key AI concepts
- Effective prompting techniques with the SWETI method
- Hands-on exercises with generative AI and agent workflows
- Practical skills for personal and professional AI use
Biomedicine (3h)
- Health economics and innovation value
- AI and creative approaches in biomedical solutions
- Key challenges in scaling and regulating health technologies
- Startup case studies in health and medtech
Creative Industries (3h)
- Potential of emerging technologies
- Innovation through hands-on experimentation
- Digital skills and strategies for a strong online presence
- Ethical and inclusive use of digital innovation
Common Sessions (14h)
- Introduction (1h)
- Case Challenges explained (1h)
- Technology Transfer (1h)
- Entrepreneurial Competences and Tools (6.5h)
- Mentoring and pitch preparation (4.5h)
Eligibility
Participants with academic or professional backgrounds in any field are eligible. A minimum of a bachelor’s degree is recommended.
Course certification
Teams will need to work together and pitch their creative solutions to complete the course and receive a final certificate. An internation jury composed of entrepreneurs and academics will select the best solution, which will be eligible for a 2000€ award and a direct entry to phase 2 of ELEVATE (acceleration program).
ELEVATE consortium
This course is provided by the ELEVATE consortium, supported by EIT Food and the EIT HEI Initiative, funded by the European Union. The project is coordinated by the Research and Innovation Office (RIO) at Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Portugal), with the following partners: Aarhus University (Denmark), Università degli Studi di Trieste (Italy), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Italy), Food4Sustainability CoLAB (Portugal), TecmaFoods (Portugal), and MateraHub (Italy).