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Bioenterprise - BIO00060I

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  • Department: Biology
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: I
  • Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
    • See module specification for other years: 2023-24

Module summary

The transfer of scientific innovation from Biotechnology, Biomedicine and other Bioscience disciplines into commercial businesses creates financial and societal value. The City of York has long been a centre for for-profit businesses with social purpose, and this module explores how entrepreneurial activity from bioscientific innovation can also be used for the public good. The module provides an opportunity to learn about entrepreneurial processes and gain relevant research impact and employability skills for a range of sectors.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 2 2024-25

Module aims

This module is designed for students who are interested in entrepreneurial processes, how research makes a wider socio-economic impact, or in developing business skills. This module aims to provide an overview of the “science-to-product” pathway, using lectures and workshops with visiting researchers, entrepreneurs and supporters of innovation to examine these multiple perspectives.
Topics covered will give an understanding how novel research findings become commercially important products and services and relate this to relevant commercial practices, such as marketing, finance, intellectual property and regulation. Another key aim, undertaken through a number of practicals that encourage the creative development of novel entrepreneurial ideas, is the opportunity to develop effective communication and persuasive skills in a verbal and written context - useful graduate skills for a range of sectors.

Module learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this module will be able to:

Describe key concepts in enterprise and innovation and how they specifically relate to the biosciences.

Effectively communicate scientific-based ideas to a range of audiences using appropriate verbal and written methods.

Develop a persuasive written document which considers a range of business, financial, legal, and ethical factors.

Critically reflect on the needs and demands of stakeholders for scientific innovation.

Indicative assessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100

Module feedback

Marks for all summative assessments will be made available to you and your supervisor via e:vision. Feedback will be either individual or cohort-level, depending on the assessment format. You should take the opportunity to discuss your marks and feedback with your supervisor.

For exam-style summative assessment, model answers will be provided for all questions along with cohort-level feedback indicating how students answered questions in general. Marks achieved per question will be added to your script.

For coursework assessments (eg. reports or essays) you will receive individual feedback on your work. This will usually be in the form of a feedback sheet that will include suggestions for further improvement.

During the teaching of the module you will receive formative feedback that may be at a whole class or individual level. Such feedback may include: model answers and discussion of workshop questions, summaries of performance in practicals, VLE-based quizzes, individual spoken comments during workshops, individual written comments on formative work.

Indicative reading

These are available through the VLE module site.



The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University constantly explores ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary. In some instances it may be appropriate for the University to notify and consult with affected students about module changes in accordance with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.