BGU President Prof. Rivka Carmi announced today (Wednesday) the launch of a $1 million BGU Entrepreneurship Fund (BEF), which will award micro-grants to students to help jump-start innovative student-led technologies and ideas. It is the first such fund created by an Israeli university. The announcement was made at the SilicoNegevBGU conference, the biggest entrepreneurship event in the South of Israel, which was held Wednesday at the University.
The BEF will not only provide funding. It is a student-led fund for students. As a first step, students will be invited to take a new course to develop students' skills in identifying and investing in promising technologies. Students who graduate from the course will have the opportunity to join the fund's investment committee, together with industry leaders and BGU's management. These graduates will also become campus scouts for innovative technologies.
Both student entrepreneurs and recent BGU graduates can submit proposals for funding.
Prof. Rivka Carmi, “Ben-Gurion University has made a strategic decision to formally designate entrepreneurship as one of its engines for growth, as part of its collaborations with key players in the Beer-Sheva eco-system and BGU's Advanced Technologies Park."
Dana Gavish Fridman, VP for Entrepreneurship, BGN Technologies, “The primary purpose of this fund is to serve as an educational tool to encourage innovative ideas both in the hi-tech and biotech fields, and in the social arena. Every year the fund will invest in dozens of student groups.
“Leveraging entrepreneurship as an engine for growth at BGU will create a ripple effect in regional and national development, as the University educates Israel's next generation of entrepreneurs and leaders."
Well aware of the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation, BGU established the Bengis Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in 2001. Today BGU's evolving ecosystem of innovation also encompasses many other University entities and activities focused on innovation, including initiatives such as "20-80", a student-led entrepreneurship forum at the Faculty of Engineering Sciences; "Starter", a cross-faculty student club for promoting entrepreneurship; the "Rothschild Cube," a hub for social entrepreneurship and Inno-Negev, a technology accelerator. BGU is also partnered with the Tech7 community, the lobby organization of all start-up companies in the Beer-Sheva and Negev region.
BGN Technologies, the University's technology and commercialization company, promotes and seeks funding for researchers' entrepreneurship and brings applied science to the commercial arena.
The Advanced Technologies Park, which was established four years ago through a unique partnership between BGU, the Beer-Sheva Municipality, and the private sector, and is experiencing rapid growth as Beer-Sheva's main technology center, provides opportunities for collaboration and job opportunities for BGU students and graduates. Many prominent multinational corporations have already established centers of excellence in the Park such as: Dell-EMC, Deutsche Telekom, IBM, Leidos, WIX, Allscripts, Ness and more.
Media Coverage
Israel21C
Calcalist CTech
NoCamels
