Promoting academia-industry cooperation for innovation: A network of university chairs in The Middle East and North Africa

Innovation and Innovation Management are essential instruments and methodologies to manage the changes that society and its productive sector are facing in order to find the right balance between competitiveness, trade demands, social equity and sustainable development. A clear role in this can be played by the local universities and by an international network of higher education institutions. The EU/Tempus UNCHAIN project proposal takes its origin from an initiative started in 2007 by the Rectors of three European Universities (Delft University of Technology, Graz University of Technology, and the Politecnico di Milano) aiming at establishing a “Global Network of University Chairs on Innovation”. The overall objective of the UNCHAIN project is to bridge the gap between the innovation needs of industry and the supply of universities, in terms of human resources and technologies, by establishing a “University Chair on Innovation”. At 6 universities in the east and south Mediterranean region (the MEDA region), SEKEM and Cairo University in Egypt, Hassan II in Morocco, Aleppo in Syria, S. Joseph in Lebanon and Sfax in Tunesia, specific problems and obstacles facing innovation and the university industry relation have been analysed. In each of the universities a Chair on Innovation has been established in 2009. This Chair, together with the international partners, is responsible for developing Technology Transfer Policy, initiating a re-skilling program on Innovation, development of an EU-MEDA Twinning MSc Thesis Program, and development of an EUMEDA Virtual Environment and Strategy for University-Industry Cooperation in Innovation. This paper describes the challenges and results of this project.