Find your next challenge

Education

Find your next challenge at Pivot Park, Europe’s foremost campus for biopharmaceutical innovation and discovery.

Education programme

Pivot Park is at the centre of a vibrant ecosystem of universities, educational institutes, research institutes and centres of excellence that work in similar and related fields. Through this, we can offer a range of academic, research and business education opportunities to employees of companies at Pivot Park and students at external institutions.

HAN lectureship

Pivot Park offers a hybrid learning environment for the Drug Discovery lectureship offered by HAN University’s Academy of Applied Life Sciences and Chemistry. This lectureship explores social topics under the Dutch government’s ‘top sector’ innovation framework. The topics covered are demand-led and are largely determined by the companies with which the Academy works.

The knowledge gained is then fed back into the Academy’s teaching syllabus. The lectureship’s location at Pivot Park means teachers and students have a wide potential choice of groundbreaking biopharmaceutical companies with which to work. Pivot Park tenants, meanwhile, can benefit from the insights and ideas the students bring.

Summer school

Preclinical drug discovery

The Radboud Summer School ‘Preclinical Drug Discovery’ is an initiative from Radboud University, HAN University of Applied Sciences and Pivot Park Screening Centre. The course is hosted and facilitated at the Pivot Park life sciences campus.

The five-day course focuses on the most important aspects of modern drug discovery, such as the different phases involved, the basic principles of medicinal chemistry and what properties are required for a molecule to become a drug. It also covers aspects of quality assurance, intellectual property, registration and clinical development.

The lecture topics have been developed by academic and industry experts working in early drug discovery and development. As well as attending lectures and seminars, students also visit companies active in pharmaceutical R&D, many of which are located at the Pivot Park campus. One of the key visits is a guided lab tour at Pivot Park Screening Centre with its unique ultra-High-Throughput Screening robot. The participants also work in groups on an assignment that they present to a jury of professionals and scientists.

Anyone with a background in life sciences who is interested in drug discovery is invited to apply, Suitable backgrounds range from students with a bachelor’s degree or higher, to laboratory technicians, entrepreneurs and researchers employed by life sciences and chemical companies.

HAN minor drug discovery

The HAN minor in Drug Discovery is a 20-week module in which biology and chemistry students go through the drug discovery process, so broadening and deepening their knowledge of what is involved. The programme starts twice a year and has spaces for 20 students.

This minor has a theoretical and a practical component and has been developed by the HAN lectureship and lecturers from HAN and Avans University of Applied Sciences. Companies are also welcome to contribute to shaping the theoretical programme, as an advisor, expert and/ or guest lecturer, or the practical programme by co-formulating biological and chemical assignments. Please get in touch if you would like to know more: info@pivotpark.com

Coaching and entrepreneurial support

Pivot Park Community Services is a programme of masterclasses and seminars for community members, focusing on the entrepreneurial support they need to accelerate their business. Examples of topics include sharing best practices, pitching classes, etc.

Venture Challenge

Start your start-up

Pivot Park is a partner in the Venture Challenge programme set up by Health~Holland to provide professional support to new entrepreneurs in the life sciences. The programme helps them to develop their business case, including applying for funding and, eventually, product marketing.

Participation is open to teams of three to five people who have either established a new start-up in life sciences and health or will do so shortly. The product or service should be based on a new technological invention or a new application of an existing technology that has emerged from scientific research. The programme consists of two three-day boot camps and regular coaching sessions. During these sessions, the participants work on setting up or refining their business case under the guidance of experienced coaches from GameChanger Challenge, a specialist consultancy. The Pivot Park campus hosts two bootcamps a year.