Skill for ENtrepreneurs for Elder Solutions (SENES) fellowship program

National Institute on Aging (NIA) REDI Skill for ENtrepreneurs for Elder Solutions (SENES) fellowship program Project Summary/Abstract The University City Science Center (UCSC) will launch a 12-month immersive fellowship, “Skill for ENtrepreneurs for Elder Solutions fellowship program (SENES).” SENES is Latin for “elderly,” and the program will provide specific and meaningful support for PhD, Medical Doctor (MD), or graduate-level students or recent graduates from an entrepreneurial education perspective. SENES raises participants’ awareness and potential application areas of solutions the founders may be developing related to the cognitive and functional impact of aging and/or Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease Related Dementias (AD/ADRD). SENES is a year-long educational experience that will provide a five-founder cohort (annually; 25 over five years) with six months of hands-on learning punctuated with an “elder solutions” capstone project in month six. The second six months of the fellowship will be an active and supported technology translation in one of tracks, all supported by medical faculty and aging- focused advisors as well as the experienced commercialization team at UCSC. Track 1: Entrepreneurial – Fellows build off their capstone project to begin hitting milestones in developing their venture, raising venture capital, applying for SBIR. Track 2: Non-Entrepreneurial – Fellows explore a non-venture research project related to translation of research and development (R&D) or academic applications of lessons learned. SENES has a focus on providing exposure and opportunity to convert the theoretical understanding of entrepreneurial concepts (explicit knowledge) into applied and understood entrepreneurship focused activities (tacit knowledge). We will expose founders to the aging market for their solutions in a practical and material way. It is hypothesized that students participating in the program will be better positioned for success in their commercialization efforts, resulting in more successful technology-based startups from NIH-funded and supported researchers. SENES will also leverage government investment by increasing the likelihood of success of private capital conduct evaluation of fellows over a five-year period to measure career trajectory and increases in entrepreneurial literacy and entrepreneurial success. The overall opportunity for the SENES fellowship is to redefine the thinking about traditional innovation and entrepreneurial training to create better outcomes for academic-based founders. If successful, this model could become another tool in federal innovation and support programming for scientific founders in the future.