In September 2023 we joined forces with our colleagues from TUM with the support of EIT Urban Mobility for a  7-month applied training and personal mentoring program for PhD candidates to connect their background in academia to urban mobility business and entrepreneurship opportunities.

The programme’s first edition ran from September 2023 to May 2024 and gathered 19  PhD students from various parts of the world such as India, South Africa, Italy, Denmark. Participants were focused on bridging the possible gaps between what is studied at an academic level and what the market actually demands and, with it, the specific needs of the possible users benefiting from new services or products.

To achieve this goal, Mobilizing PhD is based on three critical skills: independence, self-motivation and communication; three qualities developed in a successful PhD journey, and all critical skills for any business start-up adventure. 

The program was structured in four modules:

#1 Discover - Participants define the product or service that directly related to their  area of academic expertise;

#2 Define - focus on finding the niche that fits into the broader market, and to develop a unique selling proposition;

#3 Develop - focus on marketing the product o (service to be able, later, to generate leads for sales;

#4 Deliver - sales and delivery strategy.

MobilizingPhD is not just a course, but a long-term journey that parallels the academic developments of a PhD candidate with an entrepreneurial track. It was thought of as a professional school running in parallel to a PhD journey. While the academic institution provides an excellent structure to create knowledge and research disciplines, MobilizingPhD teaches candidates how to be nimble, experimental, and apply their knowledge to quickly changing and emerging market niches.

The programme is tailored to the students' needs: online courses, the possibility of having a conversation with mentors, a library with PDFs, books and research useful for the process and, above all, a constant presence from the lecturers with e-mail updates, videos and exercises. The programme also features two in-person seminars where the students had the opportunity to share knowledge, create visibility about their developed products or services and connect with likeminded people.

Our co-founder Lior Stainberg was one of the mentors of the Mobilizing PhD program, focusing on developing cities towards a sustainable and human-powered mobility transition. We truly believe that in order to generate valuable change, we need people with fresh ideas willing to put their skills at the service of a more inclusive and innovative urban space. Aware that the world can often be challenging, we think that offering the future city-makers the tools to move from ideas to the real world, with realpeople, and leadership skills is a way to create the cities of the future together.

The results of the mentorship program were condensed in the free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), available here.