Seminar on setting up your own business

Organised by the French-Swiss Foundation for Research and Technology (FFRST), in partnership with CERN, and open to all CERN personnel:

Friday 7 March 2008, from 9.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.

in the Globe of Science and Innovation

  • Are you interested in setting up your own business?
  • Have you already taken any steps in that direction?
  • Do you wish to develop a business plan based on your own professional expertise?

If so, you are cordially invited to take part in this seminar, at which you will have the opportunity to:

  • hear first-hand accounts from former members of the CERN personnel who have become entrepreneurs and talk about their experience and needs in terms of financial support,
  • find out about the possibilities for obtaining support at the national level (in Switzerland and France) through presentations of the CTI Start-up and OSEO programmes,
  • have discussions with the relevant Swiss and French regional authorities responsible for supporting start-ups in innovative technologies.

A presentation will also be given by the CERN Technology Transfer Office on how it can assist you with the various formalities you will need to complete.

A call for proposals will be launched and the top projects will receive prizes from the Foundation.

All selected projects will be admitted into a coaching and business start-up assistance programme.

Provisional schedule

  • 9.00 a.m. Welcome
  • 9.10 a.m. Opening remarks
  • 9.30 a.m. Presentation of the activities and support initiatives provided by the CERN TTO, especially in Intellectual Property and IP valuation
  • 9.45 a.m. Presentation of the national support programmes OSEO (F) and CTI Start-up (CH)
  • 10.15 a.m. Innovation in business
  • 11.00 a.m. First-hand accounts of start-ups from CERN
  • 12.15 p.m. Call for proposals
  • 2 to 4 p.m. Individual meetings between project leaders and support agencies

Advance booking form

The FFSRT hopes you will be able to attend and invites you to book your place in advance by completing the information requested below and e-mailing it to the following address: mailto:cern@ffsrt.ch

Name:

First name:

Department:

Fields of speciality:

Reasons for your interest:

Potential technical and economic fields of application:

  • I wish to develop a project to set up my own business based on my professional expertise yes - no
  • Brief description of your expertise:


  • I wish to develop a project to set up my own business based on a patented technology yes - no
  • Brief description of the technology:


  • I am simply interested in the topics presented at the seminar yes - no
  • I have already taken some steps towards obtaining support in this context yes - no
  • If so, which?:

For further information, please contact:

Jean-Marc Hilfiker, FFSRT consultant

0041 79 352 72 89

Olfa Hooft, FFSRT Director

0041 79 239 61 19

mailto:cern@ffsrt.ch


by DSU Department