QRCE announces end of Phase 1 of Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Competition

QRNEC was first initiated in the year 2005, it was first named after HRH Princess Sumaya and was formerly known as the Princess Sumaya National Entrepreneurship Competition (PSNEC). The awarding ceremony of the competition's first edition was held in the summer of 2006 under the patronage of her Majesty Queen Rania Al- Abdullah. It also marked the laying of the foundation stone of the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE), on the Princess Sumaya University for Technology's campus.

In its second edition, the competition was officially launched under its new name, under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah and under the umbrella of the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship. The QRNEC is one of the many programs initiated and run at the QRCE, as it forms a central part of the center's quest to foster creativity and entrepreneurial spirit among university students and the general public in Jordan.

The Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Competition is the first of its kind in Jordan and the region. It works on spreading the culture of entrepreneurship among the Jordanian youth and strengthens the spirit of creativity and innovation among them. QRNEC also helps in educating Jordanians on finding innovative solutions that are imperative to Jordan and the region that achieve social and economic development.

In order to promote the competition, the QRNEC team has launched a national campaign, which targeted 25 official and private Jordanian universities, in cooperation with King Abdullah II Fund for Development offices in these universities. This campaign has attracted attention of more than 1500 university students from various academic levels - bachelor's and masters and doctoral - who have shown great interest to participate in the competition and take advantage of the opportunities it provides.

The QRNEC team has also launched another campaign targeted the new segment of participants (Mature Entrepreneurs). This campaign included conducting several seminars hosted at professional and business associations and chambers of industry and commerce in various districts in order to attract entrepreneurs who have the desire to establish their own companies and compete for a total of $70,000 of cash awards offered by the Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship competition for this year.

To evaluate the submissions of this year, QRCE has formed a specialized committee to study these ideas and choose the top 20 ideas from both segments (Entrepreneurship from Academia, and Mature Entrepreneurship) to pass the first phase phase. During the second phase, qualifying teams will receive several free services provided by the QRCE such as counseling, guidance and training courses organized by Optimiza Academy and Cisco Entrepreneur Institute. Announcing the qualifying ideas is expected by the end of the second week of July.

This year, QRCE has established many invaluable partnerships, with many institutions that contributed to the support of the center and the competition. These institutions are: Google, King Abdulla II Development and Design Bureau, Orange, Jordan Commercial Bank, Jordan Dubai Capital, Optimiza, Jordan Business Magazine, Jeeran and recently Royal Jordanian.

QRCE aims to develop technology entrepreneurship in Jordan by focusing on issues such as: capacity building, consulting, counseling and developing the local "Entrepreneurial Personality & Spirit".

In addition to the QRNEC, QRCE is running several leading national and international programs including: CONNECT-Jordan Program, Technology Commercialization Program (TCP), and the students entrepreneurship club (DART) which contributed in the promotional campaign of the competition in Jordanian universities and conveyed QRNEC's message to their peers of students with similar age and interests.

QRCE is an integral part of El Hassan Science City (EHSC), which includes three other national pioneer institutions which are the Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT), the Higher Council for Science and Technology (HCST) and Royal Scientific Society (RSS).