Abu Dhabi, UAE – 31 January 2021: Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem, Hub71, has forged two new partnerships with leading academic institutions – The United Arab Emirates University’s Science and Innovation Park (UAEU SIP) and INSEAD Middle East Campus – to upskill talent in Abu Dhabi and attract new science and technological capabilities to its growing tech community.
Through Hub71’s new academic partnerships, each institution will benefit from the tech ecosystem’s network of partners and expert mentors to support students in addition to their start-ups receiving priority access to the Hub71 Incentive Program. The mutually beneficial partnerships also include innovation workshops, joint programs, events, hackathons and access to Hub71’s vibrant WeWork x Hub71 co-working space. Graduate recruitment and internship opportunities at Hub71 start-ups will also be facilitated, stimulating job creation and deepening Abu Dhabi’s talent pool.
Hanan Harhara Al Yafei, CEO of Hub71, said: “Many industries and organisations, both small and large, find it difficult to recruit digital talent who will ultimately drive Abu Dhabi’s tech transformation. With this in mind, we’re planting the seeds of the future by increasing the talent pool in Abu Dhabi for our start-ups while ensuring we nurture the right skills and develop the talented people needed to cement the longevity of Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem”.
Peter Zemsky, The Eli Lilly Chaired Professor of Strategy and Innovation, Deputy Dean,
Dean of Innovation at INSEAD, said: “As the business school for the world, we are excited to grow talent and support digital transformation and innovation in Abu Dhabi together with Hub71. This partnership will also open a world of opportunities for the INSEAD community to collaborate and engage with a dynamic ecosystem of innovators and start-ups in one of the world’s most forward-looking environments”.
Prof. Nihel Chabrak, CEO of UAEU Science and Innovation Park, said: “UAEU SIP works with its partners on up-skilling students and entrepreneurs to contribute to transforming Al Ain in particular into a learning and knowledge-based territorial economy. Achieving this goal, requires taking into consideration the availability and costs of the workforce, in addition to the quality of talent, which we make possible by knowledge spill-over and technology transfer into start-ups and new businesses from UAEU, the flagship University of the country, that has a pool of more than 14,000 students. This could become core to the value proposition we can offer besides the Incentive Program of Hub71 to attract more R&D start-ups and companies to Abu Dhabi”.
New Hub71 Mentorship Program
As part of enriching its community of founders and entrepreneurs with expert guidance, Hub71 is hosting a pool of accomplished mentors from diverse backgrounds to support their startup pursuits. Founders will be paired with mentors from start-ups, corporates, VCs and other innovation streams who have relevant experience to create meaningful connections and promote knowledge exchange.
Tech Talent Marketplace to ease access to tech developers worldwide
To provide easier access to a global pool of tech talent, Hub71 has partnered with Yougig to introduce a simple-to-use online marketplace exclusively for its startup community to access more than 1 million high quality tech developers worldwide. Through software developer companies in Europe, North America, Middle East and Asia, Hub71 start-ups can now secure a diverse range of remote and on-site developers and on demand, pay-by-the-hour services to enhance their teams.
“As we continue to play a key role in transforming Abu Dhabi’s economy and bolstering innovation in various sectors, we realise that start-ups will be far better off with easier and reliable access to qualified tech talent, especially when sustaining their growing businesses”, added Al Yafei.
