Promote your research and findings

Unys – Pôle Universitaire d’Innovation lorrain aims to build on the strengths of research across the Lorraine site to foster the emergence of new innovation projects and maximize their impact on society. With this goal in mind, SATT Sayens and the Incubateur Lorrain, founding members of Unys – Pôle Universitaire d’Innovation lorrain, are joining forces to launch a new program in 2026: “PhD Impact Transfer.”

PhD Impact Transfer is a coaching program designed to support PhD candidates and early-career researchers in transforming their scientific results into concrete innovations. We guide them from idea to project, providing them with tools to secure their intellectual property, understand market needs, structure a value proposition, test their solution, and collaborate with stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem.

The objectives of the PhD Impact Transfer program are to reveal the impact potential of research and accelerate the creation of projects with strong economic or societal potential.
This involves:

• Encouraging PhD candidates and early-career researchers to leverage and promote their research results (thesis work).

• Identifying innovation projects with high potential for valorization, transfer, and impact.

• Demystifying entrepreneurship for PhD candidates and early-career researchers and supporting them through the different stages of their journey.

• Raising awareness among PhD candidates and early-career researchers about career opportunities that may arise from the valorization of their work—whether through the creation of a start-up or through transfer to existing companies.

1:00 PM | Welcome (coffee)

1:30 PM – 2:00 PM | Testimonials from former awardees and Grand Prize winners of the i-PhD innovation competition

2:00 PM – 3:30 PM

• Presentation of the national innovation competitions, with a focus on the i-PhD competition

• Focus on entrepreneurial maturation steps

• Focus on technology, technological development plan, and Intellectual Property

• Focus on eco-responsibility

• Focus on market analysis

3:30 PM – 5:00 PM | Individual coaching to draft the initial outline of the i-PhD application, in partnership with Incubateur Lorrain / SATT Sayens

Location : Bâtiment CNRS – INIST (Technopôle Brabois) – Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy