Generating ideas is key to being a researcher: whether those ideas are what to research next, how to tackle a tricky research question or thinking about the impact of your discoveries. Knowing how to evaluate these ideas is the obvious next important step. These skills are also part of the entrepreneurs toolkit. We will use creativity and evaluation tools from a variety of sources to get beyond the “blank page” and find the gems in the ideas generated. The course will be interactive and use your research project as a starting point.
This course will cover: * Tools for idea generation and creativity * Tools for evaluation, thinking in both research and commercial terms * Demand pull ideas * Technology (and research) push products * The potential impact of ideas

By the end of the course attendees will have: * Explored several idea generation tools with their peers * Used methods for evaluating generated ideas * Looked at processes that are demand pulled and technology pushed * Thought about the wider impact of their research