Lab to Market: Bridging Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Lab to Market: Bridging Innovation and Entrepreneurship is a new initiative between Columbia University and the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) aimed at empowering a new generation of scientist-entrepreneurs in Greece.

Overview

The Lab to Market Initiative seeks to bridge the gap between basic research and entrepreneurship by equipping students and researchers with the business skills, mentorship, and industry connections needed to turn their groundbreaking ideas into viable, scalable ventures. Led by Columbia Engineering, the initiative draws on Columbia’s expertise in technology transfer, innovation and entrepreneurship education.

The initiative will:

• Offer a broad set of training workshops on business foundations, entrepreneurship, and startup scaling, provided over a period of up to three semesters.
• Pair participants with business mentors from Greece and academics from Columbia and beyond.
• Provide networking opportunities through enrichment (co-curricular) programming.
• Host a venture competition and offer grants to selected groups to establish their startups by the end of the cohort.
• Provide a Certificate of Attendance to all participants.
• Include a trip to New York City to engage with Columbia, local entrepreneurs, and the broader innovation ecosystem, with travel costs covered by Columbia University.

Eligibility and Applications

This initiative is designed for students and researchers who want to:

• Gain hands-on training on how to build a successful start-up.
• Learn how to build scalable ventures with real-world impact.
• Gain mentorship from international leaders in technology, business, and innovation.
• Join a vibrant community of peers and mentors bridging Athens and New York.

It is open to all students enrolled at NTUA with preference given to PhD students, master’s students, advanced undergraduate students and early career researchers (post-docs).

Applicants should apply as a team of 2-4 participants. Exceptional individual applicants will be considered and if accepted be asked to form or join teams based on shared interests.

The Initiative’s thematic focus for the first year will be Artificial Intelligence, Energy & Sustainability and Health, but if your idea sparks change in another field, we want to hear from you! Exceptional applications with other thematic areas will also be considered.

The first year cohort will include up to 50 participants who will be selected by a joint committee led by Columbia and NTUA faculty.

Applications for the first cohort will open soon, so be sure to check back here for more information.

Support

The initiative is run by the Columbia Global Center in Athens, led by Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science and the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), with the support of Columbia Business School, Endeavor Greece, and the Hellenic Institute of Advanced Studies (HIAS). This initiative is made possible through the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation. The Initiative will run for five years and with the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation it is free of cost for all participants.