King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) hosted the region’s first ever UBI Global Benchmarking Conference and Award Ceremony on October 14, 2015. The KAUST Entrepreneurship Center was named one of four High Impact Programs during the conference, which was developed to facilitate UBI’s recognition of the region’s top university-affiliated incubators.

“KAUST values the vital role that business incubators play in developing a robust innovation ecosystem,” said KAUST Vice President of Innovation and Economic Development, Mark Crowell. “Fostering entrepreneurship at KAUST is about more than just starting new companies, it's about acceleration and sustainable impact.”

The UBI Global Benchmarking Conference was supported by the Islamic Development Bank, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, the Badir Program for Technology Incubators and the Saudi Business Incubator Network. Over 100 people attended with participation from 10 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Holland, Sweden and the U.K.

High Impact Incubation

A High Impact Incubation Program is a successful business incubator or accelerator that is managed, affiliated or associated with a university, that has a high impact on its ecosystem and provides higher value to startup clients than regional or global peers. High Impact Programs are differentiated by improved outcomes on measures such as economy enhancement, access to funds and a range of post incubation performance indicators.

The High Impact Award nominates the KAUST Entrepreneurship Center for inclusion in a special summit to be held in Sweden in June of 2016, where KAUST is slated to attend as one of the top 100 University Business Incubators in the world.

About UBI Global

UBI Global is a thought leader in performance analysis of business incubation around the world. It helps university business incubators and business accelerators become more efficient and competitive through a comprehensive benchmark where more than 400 incubation programs in over 70 countries participate.