Jordan Technology Transfer Model

Jordan is facing significant economic challenges which lead to a high unemployment rate for the younger generations. Several countries in the MENA region are now modernizing their economies and education systems by focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship. However, an innovation ecosystem is still needed and can only be built through a series of comprehensive transformations. Universities or in general academic and research institutions play a very important role in that context. They should be empowered to contribute to equip students and faculty members with entrepreneurial capabilities to support innovation and facilitate connections between academia and industry. Creating such connections may require specialized structural units at the national level such as a Technology Transfer Center, which provides services around entrepreneurship and innovation. In this talk, given the relatively small number of research institutions in Jordan, as well as the limited industrial sector, the presenter proposes a model for Technology Transfer for the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Jordan that fills in the gap between the research done in these HEIs and the industry needs.