Download lecture notes and explore presentations and expert interviews as part of your taught course on business and entrepreneurial skills
If you’re using Business Skills for Chemists as part of a taught course at your university, you can find resources to support you here.
From lecture notes and presentations based on the chemical industry to expert interviews, use these materials to learn about working in business and improve key skills relating to finance, planning, product design and more.
What’s on this page
The course materials are divided up into three topics:
- Business for chemists introduces some of the key skills and processes you need to know about to work in business, placing these in the context of chemistry-using industries.
- From bench to bank follows the main steps involved in product development, from identifying a problem and generating solutions to pitching the product and bringing it to market.
- Intellectual property explores the concept of IP, focusing on patents, and includes lecture notes plus a video interview with an intellectual property lawyer.
1. Business for chemists
In this section, you can find the presentations for two lectures, one about chemistry-using industries and the other about the basic rules of business.
You may also visit the site of a chemistry-using business as part of your course – your tutor will advise you if this is the case.
1.1. An introduction to the chemistry-using industries
In this lecture, you will find out more about the economic importance of chemistry in the UK and around the world, and explore some of the principal challenges facing the chemistry-using industries, from climate change to the supply of raw materials.
1.2. Basic rules of business
From business plans and project management to SWOT analysis and investment, this lecture covers the fundamental skills and ideas you need to be aware of to pursue a career in business.
2. From bench to bank
The aim of this topic is to work in groups to develop a chemistry related product or service that solves a real life problem and present the idea in a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style business pitch.
This section includes the presentation for a lecture on ‘ingenuity’, available to download below, as well as videos demonstrating business pitches by students at the University of Nottingham.
2.1. Ingenuity
This lecture explores the process behind innovation and new product development, from identifying and defining a problem to formulating a range of possible solutions and using appropriate criteria to select the best idea.
2.2. Example business pitches
Watch the videos below to see how students at the University of Nottingham approached their presentations when delivering a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style pitch.
Pitch 1: biodiversity and ‘vertical villas’
Pitch 2: a wristband for antibiotics
3. Intellectual property
This section introduces the concept of intellectual property, and includes the presentation for a lecture on IP plus an interview with Rachel Oxley, an intellectual property lawyer.
3.1. Intellectual property
In this lecture, you will develop your understanding of intellectual property and find out how it can be protected, particularly using patents.
3.2. Ask Rachel
Explore this series of videos from an interview with patent attorney Rachel Oxley to find out more about intellectual property, patents and her role as an intellectual property lawyer.
About Rachel
Intellectual property
Patents
Money
Additional information
This resource was originally published in 2012 as part of the Business Skills for Chemists website. It was developed by the University of Nottingham in association with the Royal Society of Chemistry, and funded by the National HE STEM Programme.
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