A DOST-PCIEERD program implemented by the Ateneo Intellectual Property Office aipo@ateneo.edu
SPRINT-STEP — Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Program

Turning
Filipino
researches
into
business

This cycle · STEP 2.5 · Oct 20, 2026 – Jan 29, 2027

10Research teams
8Institutions
12Weeks
10Learning sessions
The 12 weeks

Lab bench to first customer

Phase 01Weeks 1–4

Find the market

Launch on site, map the ecosystem, choose the first customer and size the market.

Program launchEcosystem mapping Beachhead marketTAM · SAM · SOM
Phase 02Weeks 5–8

Build the strategy

Put a number on the value, know the competition, plan the route to market, and meet at the mid-program checkpoint.

Quantified valueVRIO & CPM Go-to-market & Lean CanvasMarket strategy
Phase 03Weeks 9–12

Validate, fund and pitch

Validate the business model, get the finances, team and IP ready, and present on Demo Day.

Business model validationFinance, team & IP FASTRACDemo Day
Inside the program

What twelve weeks look like

Researchers building a structure together at a STEP team workshop
Team workshops
Trainer speaking at a STEP learning session at Ateneo de Manila University
Learning sessions
A mentor walking a participant through her work on a laptop
Mentoring
A STEP team standing beside their project poster
Team formation
Awarding ceremony at the STEP graduation
Graduation
Participants and panelists at STEP Demo Day
Demo Day before investors, agencies and industry
What teams leave with

Three things, every cycle

Nothing here stays on a slide. Every weekly output feeds one of these three, so by Demo Day they are finished rather than started.

01

A validated business model

Not a guess about who might buy. A beachhead market you chose, sized, and then checked with the people actually in it.

  • Beachhead market and customer segments
  • TAM, SAM and SOM, with the reasoning behind each
  • Quantified value proposition, Lean Canvas, go-to-market plan
Weeks 2 to 9
02

A FASTRAC proposal

The DOST form that funds the next stage — answered a few items a week, so none of it is written the night before the deadline.

  • All 24 items of DOST FASTRAC Form 2
  • A technology roadmap you can defend
  • A two-year budget that adds up
Assembled across the whole cycle
03

A path to spin-off

Where the technology can go and what stands in its way, written down while the people who can answer are still in the room.

  • An IP strategy for the technology
  • A spin-off team with clear roles
  • A pitch deck built one slide a week
Weeks 10 to 12

Each one is scored by a three-person panel before the cycle ends, so what you leave with has already been read by people outside your team.

From the program

Articles and publications

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For participants

Schedule, materials, submissions and feedback live inside STEP Hub during the cycle. Accounts are by invitation from the STEP team.

Email the STEP team