Check out iBiology’s newly released Educator Guide for the Business Concepts for Life Scientists course: https://courses.ibiology.org/educator_resources/BCLS
The course content covers business strategy, finance and business development, built specifically for scientists. The course helps prepare scientists who want to start their own labs, and inform scientists who want to go into industry.
Many BGS students have expressed interest in learning about aspects of business as part of their preparation for various careers. Wharton conducts a series of Coursera courses in business foundations.
https://www.coursera.org/specializations/wharton-business-foundations
The courses are free for people who don’t want or need any course credit and simply want exposure to business principles and practices. However, some people may wish to receive credit for individual courses or for a certificate (6 courses including a capstone project). Coursera estimates it takes 4-5 weeks to complete each course.
The cost per month of Coursera is $79. BGS can reimburse students for up to 7 months of Coursera who show proof of completion (*details below).
If you take any of the courses (whether for credit or not), we’d be interested to hear what you think of them.
*Tiffany Brooks (brookst@upenn.edu) can help with reimbursement. Reimbursement will be processed via Concur and require the following documentation:
Request for reimbursement must be submitted within 60 days of course completion/credit received. Approval of submissions past the deadline is at the discretion of the program.
iBiology has posted the second installment in their video series on business concepts for biomedical scientists. The video provides an overview of tools used to develop and assess strategy. The series as a whole equips participants to perform analyses to evaluate an operating environment (including competitors, stakeholders, and other factors) and discusses how to set, generate, and prioritize a scientific enterprise’s goals.