Higher Council for Innovation and Excellence HCIE

Through the council’s strategic partnerships with the Palestinian universities and research institutions, numerous joint initiatives have been started to boost research in areas of national priority, such as energy, nanotechnology, medicine, agriculture and entrepreneurship. Moreover, the council endeavors to build linkages between the academic, research sector and the industrial and business sectors.
The establishment of the Palestinian Incubator for Energy (PIE), in partnership with Jerusalem District Electrical Company.  Its objectives include supporting entrepreneurs through the early stages of business development, stimulating innovation and new initiatives in energy technology, encouraging investment in the energy technology sector and the creation of new jobs.
The council in the year 2015 conducted the first innovators forum, where selected Palestinians and Palestinian friends entrepreneurs from Palestine, the Diaspora and all over the world, will be invited to present and show their success stories. Its objectives were to motivate Palestinians especially youths by exposing them to these success stories and to encourage the participant entrepreneurs to invest in Palestine. Hundreds of projects introduced to the forum, tens of them received succeed had a seed fund and incubation just started in cooperation with private sector.
As an official body responsible for building, organizing and supporting the innovation ecosystem, a coordination workshop with the national institutions involved in innovation, such as, incubators, accelerators and centers of excellence for the purpose of organizing this sector, providing them with the needed support and creating the essential coordination among the different parties on one hand and among these parties and the council on the other hand.
Memberships, memorandums of understanding or coordination meetings with the following regional and international organizations: Arab Council for the Gifted & Talented (ACGT), International Movement for Leisure Activities in Science and Technology (MILSET), Arab Robotics Association (ARA), World Council for Gifted and Talented Children (WCGTC), Arab Innovation Network (AIN) , the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), World Bank, the Korean agency for international cooperation, Global Communities (formerly CHF International), the Indian and Chinese representatives in Palestine. And recently with THE SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF TURKEY (TUBITAK).
Funding and providing incubation for innovative projects: about hundred of projects have been received directly through the council. After appropriate evaluation by the evaluation committee, about twenty successful projects were selected. Some of them were financed, others were accepted for incubation (energy-related projects) and the rest were provided with the necessary networking and linkage with the relevant institutions.
The council has started coordinating with the concerned parties including governmental institutions, academia, and private sector and innovation institutions for the purpose of formulating a national innovation strategy. Moreover, the council has addressed the minister’s council requesting the inclusion of innovation in the sectorial strategies of the individual ministries