Welcome to ‘The Startup State’ - a weekly bulletin from the GEN Policy and Research team highlighting key entrepreneurship news, reports, commentary and features from around the world.
GEN Atlas insights
The GEN Atlas is the world’s largest entrepreneurship policy compendium, featuring over 350 case studies from 70 countries. This week, our GEN Atlas deep dive examines youth entrepreneurship policies. Read the deep dive.
GEW highlights
- Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau celebrated GEW saying “This week, we recommit ourselves to supporting a flourishing entrepreneurial culture in Canada and working to ensure that everyone, no matter their background, has a chance to realize their vision”(GEN)
- South Africa’s President Ramaphosa will deliver the keynote address and confer awards to the winners of the 2nd National Presidential SMME and Cooperatives Awards in Johannesburg tonight (GEN)
- GEN founder and president Jonathan Ortmans opened GEW in China with a keynote speech at the Yangtze River Delta Innovation and Entrepreneurship Summit in Shanghai (GEN)
- The EU hosted the SME Assembly in Bilbao, Spain and announced the winners of the European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EU)
- Many other governments celebrated the week, including Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Kosovo, Azerbaijan, St Kitts, Bermuda, Dominica, India, Botswana, Rwanda and many more.
News
- The United States secretary of commerce Gina Raimondo and India’s minister of commerce and industry Piyush Goyal led an industry roundtable to launch the “Innovation Handshake” agenda – a joint commitment to strengthen the startup ecosystem and promote cooperation in critical and emerging technologies between the U.S. and India (U.S. Department of Commerce)
- The United Kingdom’s British Business Bank has launched a £70m ($87m) investment fund for Northern Ireland to tackle an identified funding gap through debt and equity support. Separately, the UK Government has also announced ‘Go Succeed’, a £17m ($21m) enterprise support service to be led by Northern Ireland’s 11 local governments (British Business Bank and Irish News)
- Nigeria’s minister for communications, innovation and digital economy Bosun Tijani has announced plans to train three million technical talents over the next four years. If successful, the initiative could help President Tinubu’s goal of creating one million tech jobs in the first two years of his administration (TechCabal)
- Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has opened a new base for Japanese startups in Silicon Valley. The “Japan Innovation Campus” will be fully operational by the end of the year and will aim to facilitate collaboration with local companies, investment firms, and research institutions (AsiaTechDaily)
Research & analysis
- GEM 2022/2023 Women’s entrepreneurship report: Challenging bias and stereotypes
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s latest report presents the state of women entrepreneurship using a trend analysis across 49 countries, 5 global regions, and 3 national income levels. (Launch webinar. Babson College summary) - The Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2023
INSEAD’s latest annual benchmarking report measures how 134 countries grow, attract, and retain talent. It provides a unique resource for decision-makers to understand the global talent competitiveness picture and develop strategies to boost their economies. (World Economic Forum summary) - Boosting social entrepreneurship and social enterprise development in Ireland
This OECD policy review provides an in-depth analysis of social entrepreneurship and social enterprises in Ireland. It identifies the country’s strengths and challenges and provides policy recommendations.
Comment
- Entrepreneurs thrive in Bulgaria because of a restoring innovation culture (Milena Stoycheva, minister for innovation and growth, Bulgaria)
- The importance of emerging ecosystems (JF Gauthier, co-founder & CEO, Startup Genome)
- Why postdoctoral training needs a stronger focus on innovation (David Bogle, pro-vice-provost, University College London)
- Small but mighty: Preparing family-run SMEs for a digital future (Mark Barnett, president, Mastercard Europe)
- How to increase Europe’s competitiveness in the new global economy (Mirek Dusek, managing director and Marushia Gislen, community lead, World Economic Forum
- The first unicorn is the hardest (Adrian Garcia-Aranyos, president, Endeavor)
Features
- Sifted: How Grenoble became Europe’s deeptech hotspot
- Wired: The government is now the hottest tech employer in town
- Politico: Rishi Sunak performs delicate balancing act in Big Tech lobbying battle
- TechCrunch: Why Norrken founder Niklas Adalberth is betting on Africa
- CNN: How AfriLabs is powering Africa’s tech revolution through community
Community news
- Training program: Driving policy impact through experimentation
Innovation Growth Lab is launching a new training program which will give participants the knowledge, skills and confidence to improve the way their organizations design, run and evaluate policy programs. It builds on IGL’s years of experience helping governments around the world to develop and test new ideas systematically, putting in place structures to enable learning and drive impact. - Job opening: Research assistant
Startup Genome is recruiting a temporary freelance research assistant (remote) to work with its publishing team for the upcoming Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2024. - European Entrepreneurial Region award
Applications have opened for the 2025 European Entrepreneurial Region award organized by the European Committee of the Regions.
To suggest content for inclusion in future editions of 'The Startup State', please email matt@genglobal.org.
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