The members of the KTH Innovation Mentor Network want to help ideas and research from KTH reach a market and create impact for more people. This program gives you get the chance to get a personal mentor who can guide you on the path from research to impact through commercialization.
Facts about the Mentor program
The program includes: Six individual mentor meetings. Kick-off and final session with all teams in the program.
Program period: Six months.
Cost: The program is free of charge.
Who can apply? Researchers, PhD students and employees at KTH (both individuals and teams) with ideas or research results with potential to create impact and value on the market. The program is also open for application for teams phase two in the KTH Innovation pre-incubator program. You need to be committed to working together with an external business mentor to develop your commercialization project.
After the program: You will have developed your commercialization project, grown your network outside of academia and learned more about commercialization and research impact.
A program for you who want to create impact
The KTH Innovation Mentor Program aims to help researchers at KTH in your work to create impact, focusing specifically on commercialization.
We match researchers and PhD students with a hand-picked mentor who has experience from industry and startups.
Your mentor will share their experience and knowledge, help open doors, and contribute with new perspectives on your idea, so that your research can reach a market and create impact for more people.
Why join the mentor program?
New perspectives
Get new perspectives on your idea, research and different ways to the market.
New knowledge
Benefit from your mentor's experience and insights.
New contacts
Get to know people from different backgrounds with experience from outside of the academic world.
Interested in the KTH Innovation Mentor program?
Did you miss the application period to the KTH Innovation Mentor program? Register your email address and we will let you know when the next round opens.
You are a researcher or PhD student at KTH*. You have an initial idea of how your research could create impact on the market and have started taking steps to develop your idea, or you have an ongoing commercialization project. You want an extra guide on your journey from research result to market.
The mentors in our network work pro-bono to help you find different ways that your research could reach the market.
The mentors come from outside of academia and have many years of experience of starting their own companies or having worked in industry. They share their knowledge, help open doors and can contribute with new perspectives on your idea.
94% of the participants in the 2021 edition of the Mentor Program gave their mentor a score of 4 or 5 out of 5, where five was the top mark.
Lina Tjerneld
"Getting a mentor is a unique opportunity to start creating a network and learn from someone who has experience that you don’t, but need. Imagine being able to talk about something that interests you for an hour with someone who is only there to help you move forward, without their own gain."
- Lina Tjerneld, sales and marketing expert, with experience from founding several companies
"As researchers, we focus on something very specific and only share it with people who are doing more or less the same thing. Hearing someone from the outside say "that’s a good idea, that can work" is really inspiring."
- Amparo Jimenez Quero
"If only one percent of your brain feels that starting a business is a viable option, then you can learn a lot from this experience. I recommend the program to 100%!"
