‘Abu-Ghazaleh Knowledge Forum’ Hosts the Closing Ceremony of ‘Hult Prize’ Competition/ Hashemite University

Under the patronage of HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan, President of the Royal Scientific Society (RSS), the closing ceremony of the global competition ‘Hult Prize’ for the year 2020 at the Hashemite University was jointly held in cooperation with Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Knowledge Forum (TAG-Forum).

As participant, Her Highness Princess Sana Asim was represented  through Zoom Video Conferencing  by Sharifa Farah bint Nasser Al Luhaimaq. The  guest of honor and keynote speaker was HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, founder and chairman of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Global (TAG.Global).

During the event, HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan praised the role of youth in society describing them as the hope; the most important assets for development, as well as the new generations and leaders of the future. “ We are looking forward with confidence to what they will present to their nation and homeland”, HH said.

She also called upon the concerned entities to provide the youth with the necessary care and knowledge to fully understand their duties and responsibilities toward their countries, in addition to empowering them through innovation and entrepreneurship to turn challenges, particularly in the food security field, into opportunities, with tangible economic and social impact and to establish productive entrepreneurial projects and startups.

Meanwhile, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh stressed the importance of food, agriculture and education for nations and peoples, highlighting their vital role in progress and prosperity. He referred at the same time to the importance of agriculture as the main base and the main source for food self-sufficiency. 

Furthermore, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh emphasized the importance of institutionalizing the concept of investment in innovation, noting that the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh University College for Innovation (TAGUCI) was particularly established for this purpose, since it operates as an incubator for innovation and creative learning, with the aim of graduating innovators and inventors who make a change in their society and achieve prosperity through their innovations. 

He also called on the youth to be ambitious without limits and be confident that they would contribute to changing the future through innovation and creativity. 

For his part, Mr. Ahmad Ashkar, founder and CEO of the Hult Prize Foundation, praised the significant role of Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh in supporting the Prize competition since its establishment in Jordan as well we his unlimited belief in the power of youth and innovation. 

The Competition was organized with the participation of a number of student teams who presented various entrepreneurial projects that addressed the award’s theme for this year “Food for Good”.

Accordingly, the Green Seekh project won the first place; a project that aims at reducing bad effects of eating fast food on the body and obesity. In the second place came Wind Food; a project that aims to solve the problem of areas that suffer from water shortages through wind turbines that convert air humidity in the air to drinking water. The third place was taken by Food Vessels team; a food platform that allows users to order healthy and quality food based on their health information data.

It is worth mentioning that TAG-KF Executive Director and TAG.Global Education and Youth Consultant, Mr. Fadi Daoud, a host of faculty members at the Hashemite University and a number of experts and specialists in entrepreneurship and community leadership were selected as jurors of this year’s competition.  

It should be noted that the “Hult Prize” is the largest global annual platform for university students in entrepreneurship, organized in partnership with the United Nations. Its mission is to present and find solutions for one of the problems that the world is experiencing every year through establishing a profit-making startup to solve the problem at hand and to win $1 million in seed capital in the final stage of the competition.