Rabat – Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) has announced a joint partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to launch the UM6P Explorer program to promote youth empowerment through entrepreneurship and innovation.
The program “provides entrepreneurial education, mentorship, and funding to innovators from the UM6P community,” according to UMP6’s statement.
Explorer is a project that brings together a community of aspiring innovators, entrepreneurs, and educators. The objective is to encourage young innovators who wish to have an impact on the landscape of Moroccan, African, and global entrepreneurship and to advance business, technology, product, and social endeavors.
In addition to providing international expertise and mentorship, the curriculum follows a hands-on pedagogy. By providing a number of entrepreneurs with funding of up to MAD 250,000 ($28,320) the goal is to help each startup develop a prototype and find its first customers.
Adnane Alaoui Soulimani, the program manager at UMP6, explained that the program is designed to be a start-up incubator and an opportunity for students to “express their creativity and unleash their energies.”
An emerging research and innovation hub
Since its inauguration in 2017, UMP6 has heavily invested in multidisciplinary research programs. The university broadcasts its research programs and professional training schemes as a practical and pragmatic engagement with the 21st.
According to the Moroccan university, Its programs seek, through social innovation and entrepreneurship, to bring answers to the main challenges facing the African continent..
With its numerous programs and investments targeting entrepreneurship, youth leadership, and sustainable development, UMP6 is rapidly establishing itself as a national and regional hub for innovative research and result-oriented training.
In March 2020, the Moroccan university succeeded in launching a remote Explorer program. In spite of the COVID-19 crisis, the program was able to engage 43 start-up teams and 24 are continuing to advance their projects.
In November of the same year, Explorer opened registration for the 2020-2021 academic year. Ninety-five teams from UM6P and other Moroccan universities and research institutions are participating in the program.
Prior to launching Explorer, the university implemented a start-up support program.
U-Founders, launched in 2020, brings together breakthrough innovations in sectors related to the research agenda of UM6P. It brought together new projects whose business model is based on known technological innovations.
In addition, the institution hosts the first Interactive Digital Center in Morocco (IDC). The IDC provides unprecedented access to Augmented (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technology and solutions for Morocco’s growing digital transformation of the academic, industrial, and government sectors.It is the first of its kind in North Africa, second in the MENA region, and third in Africa.
