A programme launched this year at the University of California, Berkeley, aims to give its postdocs an inside view of local life-sciences companies and other businesses. The Postdoc Industry Exploration Program (PIEP) was instituted after Berkeley postdocs ran a successful pilot programme. The PIEP will be offered every year to Berkeley's 1,100 science postdocs, and possibly also to its graduate students. PIEP participants meet company researchers, administrators and executives, learn about their work and establish alliances that could lead to job offers. More than 100 postdocs joined the pilot: half indicated an interest in industry before the programme began, whereas three-quarters did after it ended. Christopher Tsang, PIEP co-founder and a postdoc at Berkeley, says that the project will be shared with postdocs at other institutions at next year's US National Postdoc Association meeting.