A pioneering course teaching business for bioscientists is being run via the Internet by Oxford Brookes University.

The Business for Bioscience course runs for six months, with a workload of about eight hours a week.

The course, jointly developed by Oxfordshire BioLink, Unipart Advanced Learning Systems and Oxford Brookes University, has been funded by a grant from the South East England Development Agency.

It uses modules drawn from the University's MBA and Certificate in Management programmes, with some specially developed sections, and leads directly to the preparation of a business plan.

Prof Roger Mumby-Croft, director of the Enterprise Centre at Oxford Brookes, said students were required to prepare and present a plan to a group of business people, academic staff and venture capitalists.

He added: "Traditional scientific education does not include business or management training.

"For any scientist such a lack of business skills may impede career progress, especially when moving from academia into industry. An MBA degree can be a worthwhile career move, but this often requires that a student dedicates a full year, or two years part-time, and the career disruption can be a problem.

"The cost of MBA programmes can also be prohibitive for many students."

The course is aimed at a variety of groups, from small to medium-size bioscience companies; scientists in academia wishing to start a 'spin-out' company; scientists wishing to move from academia to the bioscience industry and scientists moving from the corporate sector to start their own enterprises.

More information is available on the website www.bio-business.co.uk