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How I Turned My PhD into a Global Business
From Lab Notebook to Deep-Tech Company
Explore what you gain during your PhD, how to make career decisions, and why “starting before you’re ready” matters.
Get practical insights into technology transfer, funding, and the realities of launching a spin-off.
Reflect on your own career path, ideas, and next steps. Share your thoughts and receive direct feedback from an experienced founder.
Jan Neuman, the co-founder and CEO of NenoVision (R&D 100 Award; Czech science award, Česká hlava, in the Industry category ). will share his decision-making story – what made him leave academia, how he built a team and a company from scratch, and what he would do differently today.
This interactive workshop is aimed at anyone interested in the personal story behind NenoVision’s success, especially PhD students, postdocs, and early-stage researchers who are considering the commercialization of their research results.
The ZOOM link will be provided to non-CEITEC and non-MU participants after registration.
Programme
(approx 100min+ coffee break)
Introduction: The journey in numbers. "I was sitting exactly where you are now."
Block 1: Outcomes of the PhD Years and skills picked up outside the lab
Block 2: The Decision - Why not a postdoc? "Start before you are ready."
Interactive block: Individual career reflection
- Voluntary sharing
- Practical tips and feedback from the speaker
Block 3: Building the Company
- Team
- First customers
- Funding & bureaucracy: lessons learned
- Technology transfer & spin-off: process in practice
Block 4: Where We Are Now & What's Next
- NenoVision 2026
- Brno as a global center of electron microscopy
Q&A & Open Discussion
- Open floor, no topic off limits
- Networking after the session
More information
Jan Neuman is the co-founder and CEO of NenoVision, a Brno-based deep-tech company and the first spin-off of CEITEC BUT. He studied Physical Engineering at Brno University of Technology (Ph.D. 2014) and, while still completing his doctorate in Professor Tomáš Šikola's team, contributed to the development of AFM-in-SEM technology as part of the TAČR AMISPEC project at CEITEC. In 2015, he and two fellow PhD students decided to take their academic research results and turn them into a commercial product, experiencing firsthand the journey from idea to real company.
NenoVision today manufactures and sells LiteScope instruments across 4 continents. Key customers include NIST, ASU, and McGill in North America, and TUM, KIT, and CEITEC in Europe. The company has received the prestigious R&D 100 Award (2024) – often called the "Oscar of Innovation" – and the highest Czech science award, Česká hlava, in the Industry category (2025).
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon EUROPE research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101136453. This document reflects the view of Alliance4Life´s consortium and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
