“Venture Design” Course – Call for Applications and Information

Are you a student enrolled in a Master’s Degree Programme at the School of Design and required to include an elective course in your study plan? Among the available options, you will find the course “Venture Design”.

Do you have an entrepreneurial idea you believe in?
Are you part of a motivated team ready to take it to the next level?
This course is designed for you.

Venture Design is a startup accelerator course for students who want to turn their idea into a real entrepreneurial venture.

Over the course of one semester, teams will receive dedicated support to develop, test and strengthen their idea, step by step, culminating in a final pitch before a panel of investors and experts.

Language: English
Credits: 6 CFU
Applications: from 3 July to 1 September 2026, by 12:00 PM

What will you do during the course?
Throughout the semester, your team will be guided to:

• identify and validate the problem it aims to solve;
• gain an in-depth understanding of user needs;
• design and prototype the solution;
• define the business model;
• develop and deliver an effective final pitch.

A unique opportunity involving two leading universities
The course is co-designed and co-taught by faculty from the Politecnico di Milano and MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
It is based on an original design-driven methodology jointly developed by the two universities.
The focus is on understanding real-world problems, identifying user needs and designing meaningful solutions, placing design at the heart of innovation.
The course will be taught entirely in English.

Who can apply?
The course is open to student teams with an early-stage entrepreneurial idea.
To be eligible:

• each team must include at least one student enrolled in a Master’s Degree Programme at the School of Design of the Politecnico di Milano;
• the other team members may come from different academic backgrounds or universities;
• all team members must be regularly enrolled in a Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree Programme at an Italian or international university and must retain student status until at least July 2027;
• team members enrolled at other universities who are not Italian citizens must already hold a visa at the time of application or be able to obtain one by the beginning of the course, scheduled for the start of the second semester. Otherwise, they will not be able to enrol in the course and will be removed from the team.

Why should you participate?

• You will gain access to a unique learning experience led by faculty from the Politecnico di Milano and MIT.
• The entire team will have the opportunity to participate in the course, which will take place every Tuesday afternoon during the second semester.
• You will work hands-on with practical tools and methods, validate your idea and prepare for the final pitch.
• You will collaborate in a multidisciplinary and international environment in which design drives innovation.

How to apply
To enrol in the course, you must first submit an application. Only selected students will subsequently be able to include Venture Design as their first choice in their Study Plan.
Interested students can submit their application through the Online Services, by selecting:
“Application for admission” → “Admission to the selection process” → “Venture Design Course”

To apply, you must:

1. Form a team. Applications from teams of at least two members are encouraged. The team must include at least one student enrolled in a Master’s Degree Programme at the School of Design of the Politecnico di Milano.
2. Have an entrepreneurial idea that you wish to explore and develop throughout the semester.
3. Submit your online application from 3 July to 1 September 2026, by 12:00 PM.
4. Wait for the selection results, which will be announced by 3 September.
5. Add the course to your Study Plan by 7 September. Students who are not admitted must indicate another course as their first choice in their Study Plan.

Required materials
In the application form, you must upload four documents in PDF format.
1. Description of the idea
The document must include:

• name of the idea;
• short description;
• description of the need, problem or opportunity addressed by the proposal;
• reasons why it is important to address this need, problem or opportunity;
• description of the proposed solution;
• description of the potential users or customers;
• how users or customers currently address the identified need or problem;
• elements that differentiate the proposed solution from existing alternatives;
• one to three words describing the category or field of the proposal, for example “mobility”, “materials” or “public health”.

2. Team composition and profile
The following information must be provided for each team member:

• first name;
• surname;
• age;
• email address;
• university of enrolment;
• current degree programme and year of enrolment, specifying whether it is a Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree Programme;
• any experience relevant to the proposal;
• ability to attend the Venture Design course in person. If any team members are unable to attend in person, the reasons must be specified.

3. Presentation of the idea
A short PDF presentation about the entrepreneurial idea.

4. Motivation
A PDF document describing the team’s motivation for joining the course.

Each of the four files must not exceed 20 MB.
Please ensure that all the required content is included. Incomplete applications or applications missing the requested information may be excluded from the selection process.

Selection
The selection process will be managed by a committee, which will review the materials received after the call closes.
Applications will be assessed according to the following criteria:

• quality of the proposed idea: maximum 30 points;
• diversity of the team: maximum 10 points;
• motivation to participate in the course: maximum 10 points.

A maximum of 12 teams will be selected. However, the committee reserves the right to admit a larger number of teams in the event of particularly interesting ideas.
Selected teams will be notified by 3 September 2026.

Course information session

An information session was held to present the course and answer students’ questions. You can watch the recording of the information session at the following link:
https://tinyurl.com/venturedesigninfosession

Do you have any questions or would you like to know more about the course?
Write to: gianluca.carella@polimi.it