Other Activities
This page introduces "other activities", in addition to those that are linked to directly under separate headings on the home page.
Access those by clicking on the specific sub-themes in the Activities box.
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On October 2-5, 2023, IKED arranged with a pitch for "Mayyan - A new Search Engine for Africa", at Building Bridges in Geneva,
arguably the world's most important forum for the financial and corporate sector to advance new strategies in support of Impact Investment,
i.e. realising tangible contributions to sustainable development, not merely looking good. During the event and its aftermath, IKED has taken
futher initiatives to support the launch of Mayyan, coupled with new means for channeling resources to bottom-up initiatives aimed for
boosting nature-regeneration, eco-food, water, health, and education.
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The World Expo in Dubai, IKED contributed with a presentation and discussions in a panel arranged at the Dutch Pavilion on February 20th, 2022,
outlining ways forward in support of a circular economy along with opportunities in agriculture and food. The analysis drew on a series of studies
of the covered sectors, pursued on the invitation of Dutch Gulf since 2021 and further oriented to project implementation in 2022.
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The World Eco City Summit hosted by the City of Rotterdam but primarily with on-line participation, originally scheduled for 2021,
eventually took place on 22-24 February 2022. IKED contributed to a panel on circular economy, with analysis of
the smart city transition to eco-cities featuring digital enablers tailored to engaging different categories of citizens in constructive
co-creation of nature-based solutions.
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Introducing a high-level panel in the UN Habitat on October 12, 2021, IKED provided the keynote speach and overview how to transition
from support of nature-based solutions to a nature-based economy, drawing on the whitepaper produced by the EC Task Force II on Nature
based solutions, available here..
The presentation and intensive discussions featured valuable participation from Marc Vatum, part of IKED's African network and the
leading force behind the bottom-up initiative on Africa for 2040. For some points picked up from that part, and also by other
participations in developing countries, see here..
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..:: International Collaboration on Women Entrepreneurship
The conditions confronting Women Entrepreneurship and Women-owned SMEs give rise to major distortions and inefficiencies in many societies. Currently, IKED is partnering with Qatar University, Delfts University in the Netherlands and Bradford University in the UK in the development of "A Platform to Promote Entrepreneurship for Women in Qatar Through International Collaboration and Co-Innovation", a project funded by Qatar Foundation. The project engages extensive networks of women entrepreneurs, in Qatar as well as in other countries.
From 2006, IKED has been represented on the OECD Task Force on Fostering Women's Entrepreneurship in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Countries. Previously, jointly with Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP), IKED organised a panel at the World Knowledge Forum in Seoul, Korea, on the upgrading of competencies related to management and the introduction of ICT in women-owned SMEs, resulting in a Handbook on how to develop programmes supporting practical action and competence development in this area.
Working with partners in various countries, including France, Greece, Morocco and Turkey, IKED is further engaged in fostering women entrepreneurship through advocacy and application of practical experience in training at educational centres, business labs, incubators and science parks. Coaching activities and mentorship programmes focusing on women-owned start-ups aim to strengthen path-ways for innovation and growth.
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..:: Addressing technology and jobs
One of the most critical issues of our time has to do with the relationship between technology and jobs. It is well-known since decades that technology is critically important for productivity growth and competitiveness, which in turn leads to more jobs. Already Keynes (1930), Leontief (1952) and other leading economists predicted, however, that technology would ultimately replace jobs on a massive scale, reaching a magnitude that would lead to many people being laid off for good and the working day being reduced to a few hours at best. With the digital revolution, the traditional view that technology is good for jobs initially prevailed. More recently however, even the World Economic Forum, the OECD, and many academic researchers, have begun to argue that the impact of technology is now taking on a new shape.
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..:: Innovation Systems for Natural Resource Rich Economies
Since several years, IKED has been engaged in addressing issues of natural resource-based economies and their transition to knowledge-based economies. In this field, projects have been undertaken notably on Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. Related work has been carried out in Malaysia and Pakistan, and also in Central America and the Caribbean.
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..:: Inconet-GCC
The first phase of the EU-funded Inconet-GCC project started in 2008 and lasted for approximately four years. Aiming at basic capacity-building, that phase featured mapping of common research interests, areas and issues in the GCC-countries and the European Union. Its results included a specification of priorities for research collaboration between the EU and the GCC countries.
The second phase, Inconet-GCC II, started in January 2014. It addressed specialised research and innovation agendas, notably innovation in health, including to combat diabetes, and a track on smart city development. IKED, as one of the European partners, focused primarily on the second part. On December 7-8, 2015, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Muscat, the Sultanate of Oman, the project team led by ITEMS in Paris and hosted by the Research Council of Oman, organised the major Conference, "Collaboration for Innovation; Linking GCC and EU". IKED played a major role in supporting the local organisation and moderated two sessions, on Main challenges in EU-GCC R&I cooperation: Ways to overcome the hurdles, and on Innovation in Energy/Smart Cities and Health in an international context.
Prior to the completion of the project early 2017, a final event was organised in Brussels, November 29, 2016. IKED coordinated the preparation of the Continuity Study, see here, outlining strategies for future collaboration between the GCC and the European Union, as well as provided major contributions to the Whitepaper and Roadmap wrapping up the end results (available here).
Apart from IKED, the complete list of partners in Inconet-GCC II was:
- Eurocosnualnts SA http://www.euroconsultants.gr/index_ecsa.html
- Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas http://www.forth.gr/
- Agenzia per la promozionedellaricercaEuropea http://www.apre.it/
- Turkiye bilimsel ve teknolojik arastirma kurumu http://www.tubitak.gov.tr/
- Panepistimio Thessalias (University of Thessaly) http://www.uth.gr/en/
- ITEMS International http://www.items.fr/
- The BRITISH COUNCIL http://www.britishcouncil.org/
- Industrial Innovation Center http://home.trc.gov.om/tabid/194/language/en-US/Default.aspx
- The Public Establishment for Industrial Estates http://www.peie.om/
- Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences http://www.kfas.org/
- Higher Colleges of Technology http://www.hct.ac.ae/
- Abu Dhabi Systems Integration http://www.adsi.ae/
- Masdar Institute of Science and Technology http://www.masdar.ac.ae/
- Qatar University http://www.qu.edu.qa/
- Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage http://www.cultnat.org/General/Cultnat.aspx
- Political Development Forum; Gulf Research Center Foundation http://www.grc.net/
- Bahrain eGovernment Authority http://www.ega.gov.bh/
- Ministère de l'EnseignementSupérieur, de la RechercheScientifique et de la Formation des Cadres, Direction de la Technologies - http://www.enssup.gov.ma/
..:: Individual Digital Identity (INDI) Ecosystem Implementation Process Initiated
The project GINI-SA (Global Identity Networking of Individuals - Support Action), ran as an EU-funded research project and Support Acton from the spring 2010 until December 2012. Its main task has been to outline the vision of an Individual Digital Identity (INDI) ecosystem and to work out a Roadmap for its implementation.
Following acceptance by the European Commission of the final reporting of the research stage, the GINI project continues to operate based on a Collaboration Agreement signed between the eight partner organisations, with IKED as coordinator, for the purpose of paving the way for realisation of its results.
Special Event at the World Economic Forum in Davos ...
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..:: IKED projects related to FDI
IKED is engaged in various projects and studies on the attraction and effects of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and how they relate to innovation capacity in the countries where they invest. This work aims at an increased understanding of the interplay between national institutions, competencies and resources, and the role played by Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) and global investment flows. For many emerging economies, these issues are of high practical importance, and IKED puts priority on work with countries where its analysis and recommendations can be of practical use.
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..:: New Approaches to Entrepreneurship Training
Since 2009, IKED has been engaged in collaborative projects to promote and undertake training to foster innovation and an entrepreneurial mindset. Some of these activities have been developed in collaboration with the International Entrepreneurship Academy (Intentac). IKED is also engaged in bringing the entrepreneurship component to graduate programmes arranged by universities addressing complementary topics. On this basis it has provided lectures linking to entrepreneurship through, e.g., classes wiithin the Harvard University Extension School in the area of "Beauty, leadership and innovation", in Siena, Italy, July 2014 and in Milan, Italy, July 2015. Earlier training activities in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates reached a broad range of stakeholders. In Greece, IKED collaborates with Euroconsultants (Thessaloniki ) in activities that engage chambers of commerce, public authorities and young entrepreneurship associations in support of better conditions for innovation and entrepreneurship. Discussions have also been initiated with the University of Teheran, the Islamic Republic of Iran, on new training modules, following the appointment of Intentac's Dean Prof. Piero Formica as Adjoint Professor at the Entrepreneurship Centre.
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For further information, contact info@iked.org
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