November 9, 2022

Green Innovation and Careers: UfM Research representatives and stakeholders met in Amman for discussing these topics

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With 45% of the population under the age of 25, the Mediterranean is a young region whose potential needs to be fully exploited for achieving a double green and digital transitions. At the same time, economic, environmental, and social challenges are negatively affecting youth employment such as lack of innovation, inflation, environmental and climate changes, and disruption in global supply chains.

Knowledge and skills can offer solutions to the many challenges in the Euro-Mediterranean region, by contributing to empower youth as agents of innovation, increasing the resilience and inclusive economic development of the Mediterranean region. Implementing this great potential for sustainable economic growth requires a stronger and structured dialogue between academia, governments, business sector, and civil society, with the aim to support environmental sustainability and job creation.

This was commonly agreed among the participants of the “UfM Forum on Green Innovation and Careers for Empowering the Mediterranean Youth: Triple Helix in Action”, a UfM-HCST (Higher Council for Science and Technology, Jordan)  event supported by GIZ, and hosted in the major ESCWA Conference “Arab SMEs Summit: Opportunities Beyond Borders”, held in Amman from 30 October to 1 November, 2022 which saw more than 600 participants attending under the auspices of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II.

During the Forum, three sessions were held, delving into the triple helix (the connection between academia, governments, and business sector), green innovation through research, and employability.

The main questions that were discussed were:

– how government-academia-business cooperation is being advanced in the region,

– how innovation can support a green transition, and

– how to foster innovation, skills and employability to support Mediterranean citizens.

High-level participants from GIZ, FAO, PRIMA initiative, Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, Association of Arab Universities, BUSINESSMED, and many accelerators and career centers from UfM Countries.

UNIMED involved into the discussion, was represented by Ms. Silvia Marchionne, Senior Project Manager and coordinator of the UNIMED SubNetwork on Employability. Ms. Marchionne participated in the Forum and moderated the third session “Employability practices to join and replicate”.

To know more about the event, you can download the agenda here.

An operational report will feed into the UfM initiative on the Innovation-Employability nexus.

Further information: Reinforcing the Innovation-Employability Nexus in the Mediterranean – A Handbook for Academia, Industry and Policymakers