Berytech launched a scholarship fund for entrepreneurship and innovation with the Saint Joseph University of Beirut (USJ), during an MoU signing ceremony in the presence of USJ rector Professor Salim Daccache sj, and Berytech’s Chairman and CEO Maroun N. Chammas.
This US$30,000 Fund will allow USJ to grant scholarships for an entrepreneurial project to students enrolled in Masters degrees, and in the last year of Bachelor’s with an end-of-year project. The eligible sectors are: agriculture, water, energy and waste. A particular interest is given to research highlighting the application of science, engineering and technology, in all the aforementioned sectors.
In her welcome address, the Director of the USJ Foundation, Mrs. Cynthia Ghobril Andrea, expressed her joy to welcome the entire Berytech team and at its head Mr. Maroun N. Chammas “faithful friend of USJ and who, to our great pleasure, has accepted to be a member of the Foundation’s governing board. Mr. Chammas, adds Ms. Ghobril Andrea, we are sincerely grateful to be able to benefit from your experience, your vision and your good advice.”
The director of the USJ Foundation also welcomed the presence, at the signing ceremony, of the vice-rectors and especially the deans and directors of the beneficiary institutions: Pr Wassim Raphael, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Director of ESIB, Prof. Richard Maroun, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, Prof. Maya Kharrat Sarkis, Director of the Higher School of Mediterranean Agronomy Engineers and of the Higher School of Agri-Food Engineers, and Prof. Marc Ibrahim, Director of the INCI.
In his words, Prof. Salim Daccache recalled that “together in 2002, we founded Berytech, this ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship at the service of Lebanese youth and their capacities, and which over time has become a national obligation to develop and invest in young talents. You have been, dear Mr. Chammas, the awakened engine of Berytech, and your leadership continues to support it. You have invested heavily and convinced a lot of partners to invest in it. You give a great lesson in teamwork, and intelligent organization. “
“You are aware,” adds the rector, “that our youth must not desert the country, that an economy must not live without innovation and alignment with the economies of the region and the world. This well-appreciated initiative opens up other possibilities for working together, and takes up new challenges such as the creation of Berytech branches in the regional campuses of USJ: a project that has just been adopted by the Agencce Universitaire de la Francophonie through the Safir program.
“As Prof. Salim Daccache so aptly said on December 29, 2019, during the establishment ceremony of the Maroun Chammas Endowment Fund: ‘Berytech is resistance through resilience’. With these words full of gratitude and hope, Ms. Ghobril Andrea gave the floor to the President and CEO of Berytech.
“It has been two decades, continues Maroun N. Chammas, that we have been transforming innovative ideas into successful Lebanese companies, which mainly help to create jobs. Despite all the factors hampering Lebanon’s progress, it is the entrepreneurial ecosystem, launched by USJ through Berytech, that has reshaped and will continue to reshape the Lebanese economy. We owe it to this generation of students to provide them with the best training in the most promising sectors, such as agri-food and renewable energies. Lebanon’s potential is immense and should enable it to play a leading role, at the local as well as the regional level, and even globally, in the race for viable solutions, for our collective food security and the health of our environment.”
Chammas continued, “Universities play a key role in the transfer and commercialization of technology. It is therefore incumbent on them to take responsibility for revolutionizing this process in Lebanon, to advance the economy. And who better than USJ to lead this revolution?”
For his part, Mr. Ramy Boujawdeh, Deputy GM of Berytech, shared the technical details, with the selection process and eligibility criteria for the scholarship. After the signing, the rector offered Mr. Chammas an autographed copy of the book Varoujan, photographer of the thirty glorious ones of Lebanon, which is a catalog published by the Presses of the USJ in collaboration with the Eastern Library and Boghossian Foundation.
