Nile University and Dr. Heba Labib, Winners of the Triple E Awards
Another achievement was on its way to Nile University and its faculty members and has thankfully arrived safe and sound to whoever really deserves it. It’s a pleasure to announce that Nile University and Dr. Heba Labib, were added to the finalists’ list of the Triple E African Awards and have won both awards. To be precise, Nile University was chosen as one of the top 5 universities worldwide and has now officially won the Entrepreneurial University of the Year Award; adding to that, Dr. Heba Labib, Director of the Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Competitiveness Center at Nile University, and the executive director of NilePreneurs Initiative, has won the Female Entrepreneurial Leader of the Year Award as a "Pro-active and empowering ecosystem builder".
The Triple E Awards are a global recognition of efforts towards the quest for entrepreneurship and engagement in higher education. It is the first award to focus specifically on different dimensions of the universities' third mission.
Nile University’s Entrepreneurship Achievements
During the past five years, Nile University has supported more than 270 start-ups and provided legal support for the registration of more than 150 companies, and in terms of industrial orientation, the university has implemented 170 projects for product development, both new and related to reverse engineering, prototyping and design for manufacturability. The university also provided a number of services to more than 700 small and medium companies in the sectors of engineering, plastics, chemicals and furniture.
As mentioned on Triple E Awards website, “The concept of the entrepreneurial university has been adopted by NU following its impactful involvement in several national initiatives aiming at raising awareness about entrepreneurship, fostering technology transfer across Egyptian universities, and supporting the competitiveness of the Egyptian industry. The entrepreneurial university concept has further been refined via the university’s homegrown research on creating a roadmap for the transformation of Egyptian universities to become entrepreneurial.” This recognition asserts Nile University’s position as an impactful university and one of the best universities in the world in the field of entrepreneurship. The University has been working hard and positively to support the Egyptian economy through a number of entrepreneurship programs and activities to support and sponsor them, starting from the idea stage until implementation and measuring the outputs.
With regard to Nile University’s future plans, further progressive steps are being taken in the presence of one of the largest centers of innovation and entrepreneurship in Egypt within it that aims to be the heart of innovation, entrepreneurship and competitiveness in Egypt, namely Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Competitiveness Center (IECC). A center that supports the development of prototypes and provides seed funding for start-up projects, which also embraces one of the best initiatives - NilePreneurs Initiative. Moreover, the university has an influential national role and is working to maximize its national influence as an advocate for entrepreneurship and innovation. The university plans to establish an investment fund that helps provide more opportunities for supported startups, as well as expand its participation with a number of other universities in Egypt, and it will launch its NilePreneurs model in these universities or institutions to support them in building their own entrepreneurship centers.
Dr. Heba Labib’s Turn to Stardom
Speaking of NilePrenurs, it’s important to put ahead some of Dr. Heba Labib’s achievements that have asserted her place at the top of many lists, not just the Triple E Awards.
Dr. Heba Labib is currently the Director of the Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness Center (IECC) at Nile University. She is also the Director of NilePreneurs, a nationwide initiative that supports startups and SMEs through capacity building, incubation, and innovation support.
She has won several entrepreneurship awards from different countries around the world, like in the Arab Business Challenge in 2007 in UAE, the Business in Development Challenge in 2006, the Netherlands, and the Shell “Intelaqah for Best Business Idea” Award in 2005 in Oman. Dr. Heba Labib holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Oakland University, MI, and later she shifted to the field of Management of Technology with an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. from Nile University, Egypt.
She seems to be far away from withholding her dreams and is extending her experiences through advice, saying that to be an “aspiring leader is to be the intrapreneur within their organizations. They should work on acquiring the necessary resources. Also, establish excellent connections with the university leadership to acquire buy-in and support. At the same time, empower their team to be able to grow and scale operations."
She also adds that her “plans for the upcoming period include continuous improvement and expansion of entrepreneurship support at NU. Also, offering NU’s services to other universities in Egypt and the region in a variety of means (partnership, paid consultancy, implementation services, etc…).”
What is inspiring about these achievements is the belief that the power of entrepreneurship can have an actual positive impact on the community, and this is one of Nile University’s strategies that is implemented through five axes: resources - education - entrepreneurship support - industry support - impact measurement. The university’s strategy also believes that entrepreneurship does not stop at the theoretical level but must be translated into executable activity. In order to have a student with good experience, it is important to integrate entrepreneurship and innovation into the academic curricula in all university majors and become the harness that can extract maximum potential and creativity.
We’re hoping to see Nile University, Dr. Heba Labib and all NU community winners of many awards that reflect their true dedication and hard work towards Nile University and society. We’re proud of what we are becoming as a research and entrepreneurial university and of what our community is achieving as positive and impactful members and we’re sure there is yet much more to come.