Eight sessions of three hours, one a week, on Wednesday afternoons from 12:30 to 15:30, between 14 October and 9 December. On top of that comes the work on your own project in between — talking to people outside the lab and working through what you learn. That time is yours to arrange in your own way, and it is where most of the progress happens.

Researchers affiliated with a research faculty of one of VIS's five owners — the University of Bergen, HVL, NHH, the Institute of Marine Research and Helse Bergen — who have a research-based project they are willing to take forward. Every position is eligible: professor, associate professor, researcher, postdoc or PhD candidate. You can apply alone or as a team.

No. We are not assessing how novel your research is, and a filed DOFI or patent is not a requirement. An improvement on technology that already exists can make an excellent company. What matters is that there is a real research-based project, and that you are willing to go and hear what the people outside the lab say about it.

No. Expose is built for researchers with no previous experience of innovation or entrepreneurship. The sessions are hands-on and use a proven method — Disciplined Entrepreneurship — applied directly to your own project rather than to a case study.

There is no fee, and no obligation to start a company at the end. What you commit to is the time: being in the room on Wednesdays and doing the work in between. Before you apply, make sure you can protect that time — for some that is your own call, for others it means squaring it with a supervisor or manager.

The eight Wednesdays build on each other. The first is a graduate's story — a TILT researcher and the CEO who built the company with him. Then you go out of the lab and into conversation with the people who might need your work, segment what you hear and choose one market to go after first, sharpen the value proposition and take an honest read on how ready your project is. The last two sessions are storytelling and pitch training, and it finishes with the Christmas Pitch on 9 December, in front of an invited audience.

Expose is the front door to the wider TILT Research Entrepreneurship Programme, and projects that show they are ready go on to a longer phase of support. That onward route is subject to funding, so we are not promising it — a place is earned through the work you put into Expose and is not guaranteed. You also get help finding commercial capacity and getting funding-ready, and a certificate of completion from VIS when you have taken part in all eight sessions, including presenting at the Christmas Pitch, and done the work in between.

Expose is designed to run more than once, so if the autumn does not work for you it is worth registering your interest anyway — we will tell you when the next run opens.