On Thursday, March 7, 2019, the Office for Industrial Links (OIL), and the Program Innovation & Entrepreneurship (PIE) at the German Jordanian University (GJU) launched its Topic of the Year 2019 “Ideate Invent & Innovate”, the Kick-off event “The Path to Entrepreneurial Universities”.
The president of GJU Prof. Manar Fayyad, Vice Presidents Prof. Atef Kharabsheh, Prof. Dorit Schumann, together with experts in the field of Entrepreneurship from Germany and Jordan attended the event.
In her speech, Fayyad pointed out that Entrepreneurial University has gained prominence as a knowledge and innovation actor, the key to competitiveness, simulation of economic growth and wealth creation in today’s globalized world.
She said that our youth in Jordan are creative and innovative, capable of creating astonishing initiatives and solutions in the interest and service of our beloved country.
She added that GJU preserves no effort in supporting Students’ Initiatives, particularly those of entrepreneurial dimensions, through the Program Innovation & Entrepreneurship (PIE) at GJU, where they motivate the students and support them to create applicable Entrepreneurial Projects.
Prof. Schumann identified the topic of the year and its importance to GJU, presenting the upcoming topics at GJU. She explained that these topics are considered for student and collaborative research project with Jordanian, German and international parties, besides other parties such as faculty, industry, business, and startups.
Schumann specified that innovation and entrepreneurship are parts of the main strategic goals to support GJU’s vision of preparing highly qualified graduates who are educated to think out of the box to compete in today’s global job market.
At the beginning of the workshop experts, Dr. Detlef Gurtler and Prof. Drick Funk shared their experience from Germany where they discussed the topics, can entrepreneurship be taught and social entrepreneurship education through interactions with local communities.
On another hand, the Center of Excellence for Innovative Project- Jordan University of Science and Technology, Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship- Princess Sumaya University for Technology, My Startup Incubator- Injaz, Spark, and the Scientific Research and Innovation Support fund in Jordan conducted presentations on their activities, structure and achievements in the field.
Two-panel discussions were held during the workshop. Dr. Detlef Gurtler moderated the first-panel discussion along with startups from Germany and GJU, where challenges and opportunities facing the development of "Entrepreneurial Universities were presented.
The second discussion, which was moderated by Kevin Kasih, addressed the university impact on startups.