Demonstrator Lab (D-Lab) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is a teaching facility in disguise. At first sight it may look like some academic incubator programme but peering deeper you see it focuses on student education rather than return on investment. We operate at the very earliest stage of the innovation funnel and so make virtually no selection at intake; there is no cut on project scalability, and we do not even select based on the skills the team comes with at the start. Unlike standard academic incubators, in fact, we do not want to help students across the valley of death. Rather, we take them from their eureka moment to the edge of the valley. From there, others can take over. Not all make it that far. In fact, most do not. But everyone ends up with a new set of valuable skills and something unique to add to their CV. DLab is as much about the journey as the destination!
Watch the presentation by Linda van de Burgwal, Director of DemonstratorLab VU and Assistant Professor at VU Athena Institute, at the webinar Translating the vision into action: how to foster entrepreneurial and valorisation mind-sets at the EU Knowledge Valorisation Week 2022