UC Davis Center for Entrepreneurship Announces Inaugural
 Food + Health Entrepreneurship Academy

Unilever, PepsiCo, Innovation Center Denmark and Kraft Foods Named as Sponsors

Applications Now Available Online

DAVIS, Calif., – The University of California at Davis (UC Davis) Center for Entrepreneurship today announced the details of the second annual Food and Health Entrepreneurship Academy. Presented by the UC Davis Center for Entrepreneurship, the Academy will be held from February1 – 5, 2010 at the Buehler Alumni Center at UC Davis. The Academy is a one-week intensive designed for PhD students, postdocs, and research faculty working in fields related to foods, nutrition and human health who want to learn to analyze, enhance and communicate the broader potential impact of their research, explore business opportunities and design research programs that address practical applications.

Applications are due by January 1, 2010 and are available at http://entrepreneurship.ucdavis.edu/health. All accepted students will receive scholarships to cover the program’s tuition, materials, and lodging.

The lead sponsor of the Academy is Unilever. Major sponsors are PepsiCo., Innovation Center Denmark (Silicon Valley) and Kraft Foods.  “Unilever is delighted to sponsor this event. A key component of our strong commitment to open innovation is the skills, culture and competencies that we need in our organisation to foster strong entrepreneurship and creative drive. Our vitality mission also makes the Food and Health initiative highly relevant for us,” said Phil Giesler, Innovation Director at Unilever Corporate Ventures.

The five-day academy will cover the basics of entrepreneurship, with sessions focusing on networking, intellectual property, market and business validation, elevator pitches, development strategies, developing a business pitch, and the logistics of building a team and establishing an organization. Participants also work with mentors from the venture and business community to develop their group presentations and a keynote networking dinner is scheduled for Wednesday, February 3, 2010 for participants, industry executives, guest faculty and mentors.

“To successfully bring ideas out of the laboratory and into the marketplace, emerging research technologies must co-evolve with existing market- and business-based opportunities. With this focus in mind, PepsiCo is working with the FHEA to identify and develop synergies between the fields of foods, nutrition and human health,” said Karin Rotem, Director of Innovation, PepsiCo.

Further details about the Academy can be found at http://entrepreneurship.ucdavis.edu or email Nicole Starsinic, busdev@gsm.ucdavis.edu. For sponsorship opportunities, please contact Wil Agatsein, executive director, at wagatstein@ucdavis.