About D-Lab
So… you have this promising idea that might be the start of a business
Then Demonstrator Lab is the entrepreneurship laboratory where you can transform your ideas into a tangible product or service. D-Lab is a learning-by-doing environment open to students and staff members. Its goal is to foster an entrepreneurial culture in the higher education ecosystem of the city and to boost research driven innovation by giving its members the opportunity to get their feet wet at no cost.
We can help you throughout the entire idea-to-market process. From forming the team, to developing a prototype. From working out the most efficient marketing strategy to find the resources needed to deploy that strategy. Supported by our vast network, we provide you with the business tools that help you explore whether your idea can make it. As the saying goes, there is no failure: you either succeed or you learn.
For whom?
D-Lab is open to students, staff and researchers from all disciplines from UvA, HvA, VU and Amsterdam UMC. Participants enter the lab at the very early phase of the idea-to-market process.
D-Lab offers an entrepreneurial-minded academic environment where, in parallel with your everyday activity, you can:
- Identify the actual customer added value hidden in your abstract idea
- Fix your entrepreneurial goals and their affordable losses
- Create the network of collaborators (including first customers) needed to test the idea
- Build a prototype – Minimum Valuable Product (MVP)
- Test the prototype with customers
- Move on: make a new MVP or find further funding or pivot or abandon and try again.
Why would you bring your idea into D-Lab?
Whether you’re a student or a researcher, you might be wondering whether you are the right person to bring your idea to market. The good news is: we are here to help. D-Lab supports you in all the critical stages of developing your idea into tangible customer value. The strength of D-Lab stems from an active engagement with the research community and from the possibility to access a wealth of facilities – not only in the field of sciences but also in the field of product development (e.g. for fast prototyping).
By joining Demonstrator Lab you minimize your risk exploring different hypotheses to bring your idea outside the lab, surrounded by well-connected professionals. You get the opportunity to carry out a conceptual or technical feasibility study and perform business research.
Do not hesitate: if you are in doubt, contact us. We would be more than happy to discuss with you whether and how we can help you.
What can you expect from us?
- Advice on all aspects of the idea-to-market process;
- Lab facilities, lab space, and office space (for a total of 580 sqm);
- Access to mechanical and electronic workshop, Faculty of Science, VU;
- Seed grant (no-string-attached, minimal bureaucracy) of up to € 15,000;
- Flagship grant of up to € 40,000 for a small, selected number of projects;
- Connection to the D-Lab network.
Davide Iannuzzi wins valorisation prize
NWO Physics Valorisation Prize 2018 goes to VU professor Davide Iannuzzi The tenth NWO Physics Valorisation Prize will go to Prof. Davide Iannuzzi, professor of Experimental Physics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU). He has won the prize “on account of the valorisation of this own research and the attention he gives to facilitating valorisation by […]
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Demonstrator Lab successful in NWO valorisation Take off grants
Several Demonstrator Lab projects have received an award for a feasibility study or early phase trajectory within the NWO TTW Take-off program. The Meta-grip, a tool for climbers, and Fitsurance, with tailor-made lifestyle advice on physical exercise and nutrition, are able to do a feasibility study withTake-off grant phase I. Scitodate, a Big Data and […]
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Findest and Scitodate jointly received an MIT subsidy
Findest and Scitodate have been awarded Mkb-innovatiestimulering Regio en Topsectoren (MIT) to jointly develop JARVLIS, an AI engine for Scientific Natural Language Inference. Two companies will be working together to develop and commercialize algorithms to extract scientific facts from body of scientific literature. Findest and Scitodate are both D-Lab alumni and are now based in Amsterdam […]
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