Unit information: Entrepreneurship and Professional Development in 2021/22

Unit name	Entrepreneurship and Professional Development
Unit code	BIOLM0036
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Dr. Ford
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School of Biological Sciences
Faculty	Faculty of Life Sciences

Description including Unit Aims

This unit will introduce students to the professional and entrepreneurial aspects of bioinformatics. These include presenting results (oral presentations, written reports, grants and applications, etc.), planning and execution of entrepreneurial initiatives, and ethical and deontological issues with bioinformatic data. The students will have opportunity to plan, develop and implement their own personal initiatives in the context of the private sector, as well as the skills required to disseminate the outcomes of bioinformatic analyses.

The aim of this unit will be to:

1. Provide students with a detailed understanding of the concepts behind presenting bioinformatic analyses, writing different types of documents (scientific papers, grant applications, results reports), ethics associated with bioinformatic analyses, and the aspects of entrepreneurial initiatives.
2. Provide students with the skills required to communicate bioinformatic outcomes, and design and execute entrepreneurial plans.

Intended Learning Outcomes

The Learning Outcomes (LOs) for this unit are:

A: Knowledge and Understanding:

1. to understand the aspects required to effectively present the results of bioinformatic analyses.
2. to develop knowledge on the different aspects of entrepreneurial activities, grant applications, etc.
3. to acquire the concepts behind the ethics of the use bioinformatic data and applications.

B: Intellectual Skills/Attributes:

1. to devise the best approach to communicate the results of bioinformatic analyses.
2. to design and execute entrepreneurial plans to promote the development of personal initiatives.
3. to plan the best use of different resources (reports, applications, etc.) to confront different professional scenarios.

Teaching Information

The unit will be delivered through a mixture of short lectures followed by individual exercises with computers. Blackboard will be used engage students with the unit content.

Assessment Information

Summative assessment will be provided on tasks, each of them designed around learning objectives. 50% of the marks will come from an entrepreneurial component of the unit, and the other 50% of the marks will be equally split between the tasks belonging to the professional component of the unit.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. BIOLM0036).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the Faculty workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. If you have self-certificated your absence from an assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.