New ‘prototyping’ platform for student startups launched

Algeria has launched a ‘rapid prototyping’ platform to help students develop their innovative projects into startup businesses as part of efforts to position the country’s universities as key drivers of the knowledge economy.

The new platform was launched on 22 April at the University of Ouzera in Médéa province by Kamel Baddari, the minister of higher education and scientific research.

“The launch of this technological rapid prototyping platform enhances the outcomes of scientific research, provides students with an avenue to establish startups, and reinforces the strategic role of students in wealth generation and the advancement of the knowledge and innovation economy,” Baddari said at the launch.

This initiative is seen as part of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s election promises presented under the ‘For a Victorious Algeria’ agenda.

It includes higher education priorities such as support for the economic role of universities by nurturing entrepreneurs and empowering a new generation of startups. It also aims to promote the role of universities as catalysts to achieve Algeria’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Entrepreneurial education

The rapid prototyping platform is also part of the implementation plan of a strategy for university-level entrepreneurial education which aims to ensure sustainable economic development by fostering knowledge based on creativity, a culture of individual work, and private enterprise.

Algeria is ranked 115th globally and 4th in Northern Africa for enabling startups, according to the Global Startup Ecosystem Index (GSEI) for 2024 published by StartupBlink, a global ecosystem map and research centre.

The GSEI measures ecosystems based on three metrics: the number of startups (quantity), their quality, and the business environment. ‘Prototyping’ is considered a crucial part of developing and implementation of new ideas and nurturing a healthy business environment.

Mustapha Hadjallah, director of the new platform, told the Algerian public television service that they wanted to help students and graduates as well as academic communities to transform ideas into prototypes for commercial use, thereby contributing to the local and national economy.

To achieve this, the platform has been structured into four departments: studies and development, prototype production, quality control and maintenance, and training.

“The platform offers modelling tools, laser cutting, and three-dimensional (3D) printing capabilities that can create a physical object from a digital design. This expedites the design and production of functional prototypes to give project developers the chance to realise their concepts more swiftly while lowering manufacturing expenses,” Hadjallah said.

From idea to reality

Commenting on the new platform, Professor Bouraoui Seyfallah from Algeria’s University of Science and Technology in Houari Boumediene told University World News it will foster a university environment conducive to the creation of emerging enterprises that goes beyond simply offering courses on business and entrepreneurship, providing early-stage startups with access to training, mentorship and networks: “The new platform will help move innovative ideas to successful reality.”

Seyfallah believes that this will, in turn, drive technological progress, support the growth of innovative companies, create jobs for university graduates and stimulate further industrial expansion, ultimately contributing to a more resilient and sustainable economy.

In 2023, Algeria’s unemployment rate stood at 12.7% overall, with youth unemployment reaching 30.8%, underscoring the urgency of developing an entrepreneurial mindset and support for students to launch startups and nurture them into full-fledged businesses.

Together with tech-specific initiatives such as incubators and accelerators, practical entrepreneurship courses within the curriculum, and building bridges between student entrepreneurs and potential economic partners, Seyfallah said the new platform will help transform Algerian universities into entrepreneurial institutions that can act as knowledge producers and disseminators as well as a driving force for economic growth and an engine of job creation and competitiveness.

This view is supported by studies such as ‘Startups’ contribution to SDGs: A tailored framework for assessing social impact’, which shows that small and medium enterprises are the engine of socioeconomic growth as they generate new technologies, products and services that address pressing environmental and social challenges.

Building innovation capabilities

Algeria was ranked 115th among the 133 economies featured in the Global Innovation Index (GII) in 2024, which lists world economies according to their innovation capabilities.

While Algeria’s innovation strengths are university-industry research and development collaboration (47) and human capital and research (76), its main innovation weaknesses are creative outputs (109), public research-industry co-publications (115), creative goods and services (124), knowledge and technology outputs (125), and high-tech exports (131).