The Signing Ceremony the first Memorandum of Understanding among 5 founding partner universities, that aims to officially kick-off Tirana Inc. the brand-new student incubation programme, took place on April 22nd, in the premises of the Polytechnic University of Tirana.
Tirana INC. is an initiative of Albanian universities in setting up the first multi-university incubator for student start-up teams, supported by EU for Innovation and Preneurz.Amsterdam. The 5 founding partners are: Polytechnic University of Tirana [Faculty of Information Technology & Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism], Faculty of Economics (University of Tirana), EPOKA University, Metropolitan University of Tirana and Polis University, all in partnership with the City of Tirana.
In his welcome speech, Mr.Damiani, Representative EU Delegation to Albania - Sector Manager for Internal Market, Competitiveness and Innovation, did applause the joint initiative of the universities and their wiliness to cooperate and support student start-up teams, but also assured that EU delegation will continue to support Albanian Universities towards capacity building for research and innovation in the framework of the Western Balkan Digital Agenda presented by European Commission.
EU for Innovation has been supporting Albanian Universities (through technical assistance, linkages to national & international eco-system players, as well as access to funding) and accompanying them into their journey of becoming entrepreneurial for over 2 years now. Dr. Jacqueline Jaspert, team leader of EU for Innovation, made an overview of the main interventions targeting universities, such as Hackathons as innovation events; Masterclass series on “Entrepreneurial Universities” and “Teaching Entrepreneurship”, Entrepreneurship & Innovation Inspirational Talks etc, highlighting the fact that Universities are key stakeholders of the eco-system. She also emphasised that the greatest delight of working with the Universities is to see that not only students, researchers and teaching faculty, but also the leadership embraces and supports these initiatives. Thus it is a great pleasure to be present in the memorable moment of signing the MoU of Tirana Inc. & witness the commitment of Universities.
After an introduction round of the Rectors and Dean of 5 founding partner universities, Prof. Dr. Andrea Maliqari - Rector of Polytechnic University of Tirana, Prof. Dr. Fatmir Memaj /Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Tirana, Prof. Dr. Güngör Turan - Rector of EPOKA University, Prof. Dr Gëzim Karapici - Rector of Metropolitan University of Tirana, and Prof. Dr. Besnik Aliaj_Rector of POLIS University, the Tirana Inc. MoU Signing act took place.
The official and public kick-off of Tirana INC. will take place on Thursday 29.04.2021 at 17.00 PM, as an Online Event. Follow Tirana Inc. | Facebook for more news and updated on this joint initiative of Albanian Universities.
