Syllabus

Short Course Description

This applied course introduces students to Israel's climate tech ecosystem, focusing on entrepreneurship and innovation in energy technologies, advanced materials, and climate resilience. Students will explore the core environmental and technological challenges driving this sector, map the key players (startups, corporates, investors, government, research and regulators) and examine the relationships between them. The course covers the local and global markets and how corporate buyers evaluate climate technologies by conducting open innovation. It also covers regulatory landscapes and financing pathways for climate ventures, and the criteria investors use to evaluate early- versus growth-stage climate solutions.
The course combines classroom sessions with professional field visits to startups, investors, and innovation hubs working on energy tech, novel materials, and resilience solutions (e.g., climate adaptation infrastructure, extreme-weather technologies). Ahead of each visit, students prepare short professional briefs analyzing a company or organization to be visited, including its business model, the problem it addresses, and its technological approach, and present these briefs to the class.
Assessment is based on active participation, field-visit briefs, and a final project in which students work with an existing early-stage startup (post-ideation) to design a six-month roadmap for navigating the ecosystem ? covering fundraising, product-market fit, and go-to-market strategy. No prior background is required.