Small & Medium Enterprises Grants King Fahd University the Award for the Best University Supporting Entrepreneurs

"BIBAN" is the Small and Medium Enterprises Authority Forum organized in Riyadh from 17 to 20 September 2017 to provide knowledge and support to entrepreneurship sector. In this Forum, the Authority awarded King Fahad University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) the best university supporting entrepreneurs, small and medium enterprises in the Kingdom.

HE. Dr. Khaled Al Sultan, KFUPM Rector, said the university has a pioneering entrepreneurial experience and actively participates in the establishment of a job-creating society. Its students include a large number of entrepreneurs, who provide jobs to others instead of searching for jobs.

Our University is keeping pace with international universities whose role is no longer limited to education but plays a role in building the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and sets sustainable plans for building a knowledge society.

He, also, stressed that entrepreneurship is one of the higher education hubs based on the transfer of knowledge and technology from the university to the community and to the industrial sector aiming to provide job opportunities when students establish their own companies and provide jobs instead of searching for them.

For his part, the Dean of Entrepreneurship Institute, Dr. Wail Mousa expressed his delight with the award which recognizes the role of the university in entrepreneurship and thanked the Rector for the continuous support to the Institute.

Dr. Mousa stressed that the university, with its program called “Pioneers 2030” targeted all KFUPM students as well as the graduates of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship Program and other Saudi universities. The Institute helps students and participants in this program to adopt pioneering thinking in problem solving as well as establishing emerging technology companies.

Entrepreneurship Institute focuses on the key areas in the Kingdom such as energy, petrochemicals, water, nanotechnology, construction techniques and consumption technologies as well as technology-based services such as information technology and community service.

Since its establishment five years ago, the Institute had obtain many achievements. The Institute has established a Global Advisory Council to add a global perspective to the Institute's performance and strategies. Several pioneer teams have received local and regional entrepreneurship awards, and 35 startups have been incubated, including 6 technical companies and 29 service and technical service companies. About 700 students and more than 200 faculty members participated in the activities of the Institute, and since the Institute establishment, more than 550 leading ideas have been examined.