What are the “incubation centers in universities” and why are they needed?

Until recently, students had almost no opportunity to transform their ideas into real projects with the help of start-up platforms, mentors and supervisors’ external support that could give advice and guide a young student-entrepreneur. However, today, thanks to the bilateral efforts of IT Park and universities, students have the opportunity to have incubation centers nearby, in which they can not only implement their ideas and projects or seek support from mentors and specialists, but also be in the startup ecosystem itself, feeling the entire entrepreneurial atmosphere to the fullest and the support that is given from both IT Park and the universities.

The head of our state during his visit to Kashkadarya region instructed to expand cooperation between universities, research institutes and IT-Parks in order to create synergy between all sectors of the economy and information technology. Following this mission, it was decided to create incubation centers in universities that will help youngsters to transform their ideas into innovative projects.

What is an «Incubation Center»?

Let's start with the fact that over a year and a half of active performance of IT Park, it became clear that in Uzbekistan, many young people still do not have clear and specific concepts about what a "startup" is. Therefore, in order to tackle this problem, IT Park decided to operate from the start and pay attention to working not only with established entrepreneurs and large IT companies, but also young and promising youth who also have a real  potential to become worthy entrepreneurs and lead large IT companies.

Thus, the idea of creating incubation centers, which will serve as a platform for the development of high-tech start-up projects for students, was born.

What can students get from the «Incubation Center»?

In the framework of the activities of the incubation centers, there will be conducted various consultations, competitions, hackathons and workshops for students. Moreover, university students will be provided with incubation programs and workspaces that will contribute to the productive and quality pastime of students in incubation centers.

It must be noted that incubation centers at higher educational institutions will give youth not only basic and fundamental knowledge of the startup ecosystem, but also help them realize themselves as entrepreneurs in the field of information technology.

How will IT synergy with economic sectors be created?

It is obvious that all sectors of the economy are in need of the introduction of information technologies, high-tech products and interconnection with them. This applies not only to Uzbekistan, but also to the whole world. If we take the world experience as an example, then we can safely say that an IT specialist self-handedly will not be able to cover all the specifics of another direction, whether it is economics, medicine or tourism. Therefore, to create an innovative project, we need a team, which should consist of a link "industry specialist + IT specialist".

It is possible to achieve such a connection in Uzbekistan with the help of incubation centers, where students of various fields will cooperate with IT specialists and representatives of state bodies so as to identify existing problems and find solutions to them, as well as create unique technological projects.

What has already been created?

Till now, the opening of incubation centers has already taken place in five universities of our country, such as: Turin Polytechnic University in Tashkent, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics Tashkent Branch, Tashkent State Economic University, Inha University and Amity University in Tashkent. These Universities are already in the process of recruiting applications for start-up projects for their further development.

In the near future, incubation centers are expected to be opened at the Tashkent Financial Institute, the Tashkent University of Information Technologies named after Muhammad al-Khwarizmi, the Singapore Institute for Management Development in Tashkent, the Uzbek State University of World Languages, Webster University in Tashkent and the University of World Economy and Diplomacy.