From March 21 until 27 2007 the International Training Centre for Horticultural Biology (ITC-HPB) in China has organized its first Business Plan Course as part of a Masterclass Biobusiness.
The Masterclass consists of two full week training sessions in March and November 2007 with a field work period in between. The first course in March 2007 focussed on the basic concepts of a business plan. After this training course, the groups will do field work and collect data to work out a business plan. The November course has classes by professionals in the fields such patents, eregulation, consumer attitudes and marketing. Finally the business plans are submitted to a professional jury and the best plan will receive an award during the International Symposium which is organized by ITC-HPB in March 2008.
About 25 participants from both agricultural science and economics backgrounds follow the Masterclass Biobusiness. The students have formed interdisciplinary teams around 8 different business plan topics, mostly on plant biotechnology. These teams are formulating a convincing plan around their life science product or technology. All issues involved in developing and marketing a product of plant biotechnology in China and abroad receive broad attention in the Masterclass.
The International Training Centre for Horticultural Plant Biology is an initiative of Plant Research International (PRI) of Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR) and Huazhong Agricultural University (HAU) to achieve scientific and technological cooperation, transfer and exchange of knowledge, and implementation of training and education programs between partners in China and the international community.
Companies, institutes and universities can become member to the center and benefit from its role in facilitating all aspects of the introduction of biotechnology in horticulture. In practice it has achieved that several companies active in flower and vegetable breeding are now sponsoring research at university labs in China in close collaboration with Wageningen UR experts. Furthermore the research projects benefit from the annual training courses provided by the Center with the unique involvement of the Wageningen Business School and the HAU department of Economics & Management to develop viable business plans around the research topics.
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