University-Industry Cooperation: the Key to Innovation Thies Wittig, IT Consult GmbH Germany

What is INNOVATION ? New ideas ? New knowledge ? New research results ? New methodologies ? 25/10/2015EXPOTECH 2015 Ramallah

Innovation = Invention (research) + exploitation A new way of doing things, which is commercialized. Schumpeter said “and idea that finds its way to the market” Products, Processes, Business Models 35/10/2015EXPOTECH 2015 Ramallah

Greg Ludkovsky, head of R&D at ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel producer, said clearly “Most people think of innovation as new products. But it is much broader than that. It is innovation of products, innovation of processes, innovation in the systems we use, innovation in HR, in finance.” /10/2015EXPOTECH 2015 Ramallah44

A recent survey of 350 companies across various sectors in the US showed: 71% stated innovation was 'very important' to their company. But 40% of these companies felt that they were not more innovative – or even less – than 5 years ago. Making innovation really happen is not an easy task /10/2015EXPOTECH 2015 Ramallah55

How to make Innovation happen? Only the private sector can realise Innovation, but sometimes lacks the ideas. Academia generate new knowledge and plenty of new ideas, but they cannot market them. Only cooperation between the two can make Innovation happen /10/2015EXPOTECH 2015 Ramallah66

Sounds easy, but … World Economic Forum: Global Competiveness Report /10/2015EXPOTECH 2015 Ramallah77

Palestine In FP7 15 organisations from Palestine participated in 25 projects but none of these organisations came from the private sector. In the entire FP7 only 18 SMEs from all MPC were involved in 233 projects. This is about 7% while in Europe the rate was close to 15% and recently went up to 20% /10/2015EXPOTECH 2015 Ramallah88

Palestine 82% of the total workforce in Palestine is employed by enterprises of up to 99 employees. SMEs in Palestine (between 10 and 99 employees) operated predominantly in services (49.6%) and manufacturing (35.5%) [2011 figures] /10/2015EXPOTECH 2015 Ramallah99

Palestine Strengthening the Innovation Culture OECD SME Policy Index: Innovation policies rather underdeveloped in PS Overall innovation strategy does not exist (some elements present in ICT) Innovation initiatives uncoordinated and taken ad hoc No public funding to promote enterprise innovation 10 5/10/2015EXPOTECH 2015 Ramallah10

Palestine A final (ICT related) advice: Explore the potential of the Digital Economy. Implement the necessary regulations. Take the Digital Agenda for Europe as a guideline. A survey of the DAE and how it could help the development of a new digital economy in the Med region will be published by MED- Dialogue this year. 11 5/10/2015EXPOTECH 2015 Ramallah11

German-Palestinian Cooperation Programme 12 5/10/2015EXPOTECH 2015 Ramallah12 Nanotechnology/Material Sciences Agricultural Science/ Natural Resources Management Renewable Energy In addition, proposals should incorporate the following cross- cutting issues: IT Management Application-oriented apprenticeship/training Communication and Networking First deadline: 21 December 2015 New Call to develop and deepen bilateral scientific cooperation between German and Palestinian research institutions, universities and innovative enterprises in the field of science and research.

My contact data Thies Wittig IT Consult GmbH, Germany /10/2015EXPOTECH 2015 Ramallah13