(MENAFN- Jordan Times) AMMAN — The Crown Prince Foundation (CPF) and the Hult Prize Foundation (HPF) have signed an agreement to co-lead a programme initiation and roll out in Jordan, to enrich the innovation and entrepreneurship scene in Jordan and widen the social and economic opportunities for Jordan's youth, officials from the two institutions have said.
In partnership with HPF, Hult Prize Jordan will work to "leverage the learning and track record built by the Hult Prize over the last six years to replicate the model locally, using local students to solve local challenges, and offering an award up to $150,000 of seed funding for the winning Jordanian start-up every year", according to Ayman Arandi, Head of National Programmes at Hult Prize Foundation, and Regional Director Hult Prize Jordan.
The Hult Prize is today a "massive (1000+ universities, 50,000+ students) global platform for student-led innovation and entrepreneurship," Arandi said in exclusive remarks to The Jordan Times.
Founded in 2009 by Arab American entrepreneur Ahmad Ashkar, HPF was named "One of the Top 5 Ideas Changing the World" in 2012 by the US President Clinton and also the TIME Magazine, he said.
"Yet the billion-dollar social enterprise opportunities are not in San Francisco or Boston – they are on the doorstep of Mumbai, Amman, Istanbul, Brasilia, Accra, and many more. These are the nations fighting the world's economic and social battles", according to the HPF, citing efforts being exerted by these nations to educate, treat, heal, move and care for billions of people.
"This unprecedented shift presents a once-in-a-lifetime chance for Jordan to lead in this space," according to HPF's literature.
Arandi said that his organisation believes that Jordan, specifically, "exhibits optimal characteristics for the launch of a Hult Prize National program, based on a large and reputed university base, a highly entrepreneurial and well educated population, and powerful initiatives to spur innovation and entrepreneurship, coupled with a number of important challenges (unemployment, regional instability, etc), according to the foundation.
Nour Abo Al Ragheb, acting CEO of CPF, explained that HPF deals with universities to train youth and improve and enhance their skills.
"The Hult Foundation chose the CPF as their anchor partner because we are mainly focused on the youth sector ", Abo Al Ragheb said.
She announced that the CPF will embark on the project in October, kicking off "a long process. Next year, the winning project will be announced in New York to win $1 million".
"All of the participants will be winners, because they will have learnt and trained well", she stated.
These students will present their ideas before local and regional judges, and the top startups will be invited to the Jordan National finals, where one winner will receive up to $150,000 of funding to formally launch their business.
The winning team will also be invited to attend the Hult Prize incubator taking place in London, UK, and will enter automatically to compete for the global $1 million Hult Prize in New York.
This programme, according to its literature, will rely on the knowledge economy and train more than 30,000 Jordanian students, launch more than 200 local startups, activate more than 4,500 entrepreneurs, generate 1,200 new social concepts that directly impact the Jordanian community, impact up to 2,000,000 residents of Jordan's major cities and create an estimated 2,000 jobs over the first ten years.
CPF was established as an umbrella organisation with the general goal of championing local youth, engaging youth "on a journey that builds a strengthened community, aligned with their personal and social needs, and presents them with opportunities for global competitiveness and leadership," according to CPF officials.
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