In the framework of the cooperation with CIHEAM Bari, the UNIMED SubNetwork on Employability has contributed to the fifth edition of its annual report, titled “Innovation and Youth Entrepreneurship in the Mediterranean Agrifood Sector: Actors, Policies and Prospects in a Developing Ecosystem”, and part of the activities of the Mediterranean Innovation Partnership (MIP) Network.
CIHEAM Bari, indeed, in collaboration with BUSINESSMED (Union of Mediterranean Confederations of Enterprises) and UNIMED, has committed to the establishment of the Mediterranean Observatory on Youth Entrepreneurship and Innovation Ecosystems. The Observatory aims to gather and analyse information on innovation strategies implemented by local ecosystem enablers in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship.
One of the main outputs of the Observatory is the MIP Annual Report, which includes a standardised section on monitoring and evaluation of Mediterranean innovation ecosystems over the years and a variable section where specific topics will be identified and analysed jointly with MIP members and other experts
The mission of the MIP network is to strengthen the Mediterranean Entrepreneurial and Innovation Ecosystems by networking Innovation Support Organisations (ISOs) and other ecosystem players in the Mediterranean countries and by implementing activities geared towards the enhancement of local innovation and entrepreneurship support value chains. It also seeks to support empowerment of the younger generation by stimulating and enabling them to launch and innovate businesses in the agri-food sector.
The collaboration of UNIMED in this annual MIP report edition, brings to the publication a different point of view on the topic of youth and entrepreneurial culture in the chapter 8 titled “Academic entrepreneurship in the HEIs in the MENA region: priorities, gaps, challenges and perspectives for the future”.
Based on a survey addressed to the entrepreneurship and innovation centres and the academic staff of the UNIMED associated universities from the Southern Mediterranean countries, the chapter presents a reflection on the current needs, gaps, priorities and challenges that higher education institutions in this region must face.
In fact, the phenomenon of entrepreneurship is considered as an emerging sub-discipline of business administration dealing with situations of creation or takeover of companies, development and management of business projects. Likewise, it should be added that entrepreneurship is not a phenomenon that can be reduced only to businesses, but it affects all types of organizations responding to a need in society. It is increasingly recognized that the University is the essential vector of a nation’s economic development. For some, the contribution to economic development is even the “third mission” of the “entrepreneurial university” after teaching and research. And there in turns out the importance of the concept of academic entrepreneurship and the neologism “acadepreneurship”, in the current mission of the university in the MENA region.
To know more about “acadepreneurship” in the Southern Mediterranean countries, please consult the MIP report here.
