Mapping for the STEMM disciplines in Entrepreneurship, the reality of the Jordanian ecosystem and market

1. Mohammad Obaidat
QUEEN RANIA CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP
STEMM DISCIPLINES IN
ENTREPRENEURSHIP

2. 1
Contents
STEMM in education.....................................................................................................................................2
STEMM in labor Market................................................................................................................................2
Engineering disciplines..............................................................................................................................2
Information and Communication Technology Disciplines........................................................................3
National entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy........................................................................................3
Entrepreneurship ecosystem status .............................................................................................................6

3. 2
STEMM in education
There are 25 universities in Jordan in which they offer one or more topic related to STEMM, 10 out of the
25 are public universities (Government) and 15 are privately owned universities. In those universities
there are 4213 academic staff member, of which 3196 are employed at the public universities which is
more than 75% of the academic staff employed in Jordanian universities.
The percentage of students enrolled in STEMM disciplines in those 25 universities is 44% in 2013, and the
percentage of graduates from STEMM is more than 38% in the same year, based on that in the year 2013
statistics 18,371 graduated and entered the market.
The 2013 statistics also highlighted that those universities accepted 31028 students in STEMM disciplines,
added to that 110913 who were already enrolled in these universities in the same disciplines, more than
80% of those students are enrolled in public universities in Jordan, which leaves less than 20% for the
private universities. Also these statistics showed that more than 50% of those students were centralized
in two cities (Amman and Irbid) as those cities hosting 14 out of the totally 25 universities, with 2
universities with STEMM related disciplines focus, The Jordan University for Science and Technology and
the Princess Sumaya University for Technology.
STEMM in labor Market
Jordan faces a big unemployment challenges with rates between 12% and 15%, and more than 87% of the
labor in the market are hired employees which leaves less than 13% as business owners, entrepreneurs
and freelancers.
Engineering disciplines
When giving a glance to the market status when it comes to the STEMM disciplines, the level of
unemployment is getting higher due to the large number of graduates and the small market. With regards
to the engineering disciplines there are more than 120 thousands registered engineer in Jordan, which is
considered a high ration compared to the population. The percentage of unemployment in the
engineering disciplines is 17%, with more than 45 thousands engineering working abroad.
The Jordan Engineering Association announced that some engineering disciplines are saturated in the
market and some others are stagnant. The most wanted engineering disciplines are:
1. Mechanical Engineering
2. Electrical Engineering
3. Chemical Engineering
4. Mining Engineering
5. Architecture Engineering
The saturated disciplines are:
1. Autotronics Engineering
2. Industrial Engineering
3. Transportation Engineering
And the stagnant disciplines are:

4. 3
1. Production and Machinery Engineering
2. Production Material Engineering
3. Aviation Engineering
4. Nuclear Engineering
The reason those disciplines are saturated and stagnant is accounted for the fact they we don’t have
strong production or engineering industry in the market, according to the experts in this industry, and
there is a large undocumented number of engineers who migrated to work in ICT related profession such
as programming, product development or project management as there is a better demand on such job
opportunities.
Information and Communication Technology Disciplines
The information and communication technology sector (ICT) on the other hand is the main active sector
when it comes to supporting entrepreneurship, the sector has a strong potential with 14% contribution
to the GDP, yet the sector is facing a strong brain drain due to limited opportunities in Jordan, as there
are 600 thousands Jordanian working abroad from different STEMM disciplines.
The main stockholders in this sector have been building several strategies and initiatives. The main
initiatives are:
1. E-Gove: with main focus on building more efficient government, the E-Gov program cooperated
with a startup on bringing e-payments to the government sector, and focused in one aspect on
facilitating the registration processes for the new ventures. Yet, the program has been there over
10 years now with limited progress due to cultural and financial challenges.
2. The ICT national initiative (Reach) in 2005, focused on:
a. Promotion of regulatory bodies
b. HR development
c. Government support
d. Capital and finance
e. Infrastructure development
This initiative and by 2006 considered to be a successful strategy as it yielded the ICT sector to be the
fastest growing sector in Jordan, with an average of 50% growth per year during the period from 1999-
2006 which is the initiative’s period, these results were supported by the private sector support which
increased internet connectivity, as it risen to 11.4% which is considered to be one of the highest in
developing countries.
3. Reach Initiatives (2007 – 2012) and (2013 – 2017)
a. Improve the business and investment environment
b. Increase the FDI through supporting innovation centers
c. Maintain and develop the infrastructure to support innovation
National entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy
Jordan national innovation and entrepreneurship have been lacking national policies and strategies which
lead struggle in developing the innovation based economy in Jordan for the past few years.

5. 4
The reasons behind not having strong strategies and policies in Jordan, was accounted for the few reasons
by the ministry of planning and international cooperation, these reasons are:
 Legislative factors
 Human and institutional factors
 Financial factors.
The Jordan national innovation strategy (2013 – 2017), have been put in place, as a guide to enforce the
movement towards the innovation based economy and considered the following:
 Education
 Employment
 Energy
 Environment
 Financial Services
 Fiscal discipline
 Health care
 Higher education
 ICT
 Infrastructure
 Investment
development and
Inclusion
 Postal services
 Poverty
 Scientific research
 Social welfare
 Transportation
 Vocational training
 Water
The main services required to build a strong entrepreneurship base are:
There are entities covering each of the components of the ecosystem, yet the main challenges are
considered to be:
1. Synergy and cooperation between the organizations
2. Alignment between the policy makers and the organizations
3. Focus on the R&D priorities and focus areas.
Entrepreneurship
Ecosystem
Policy
Funding
R&D
Capacity
Building
Value
added
services

6. 5
The stages to bring STEMM innovation into enterprises goes through several phases, reflected on the
Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) meter of 9 levels, goes as follow:
1. TRLs (1 – 4): Basic Technology. University research and innovation labs, usually funded by
government funds and/or private funds
2. TRLs (5 – 7): Prototypes and technology demonstration. Incubators, accelerators, corporate labs,
usually funded by private funds (Angel Investors, Grants)
3. TRLs (8 – 9): Technology ready for market, usually funded by (Venture capitals, Private equity)
The current reality in Jordan goes as follow:
Component TRLs (1 – 4) involved
entities
TRLs (5 – 7) involved
entities
TRLs (8 – 9) involved
entities
Policy
Higher Council for
Science and
Technology, Ministry of
Higher Education,
Telecommunication
Regulatory
Commission, Higher
Education Accreditation
and Quality Assurance
Commission
Higher Council for
Science and
Technology,
Telecommunication
Regulatory
Commission, Ministry
of Information and
Communication
Technology
Ministry of Industry and
Trade, Ministry of
Planning and
International
Cooperation,
Telecommunication
Regulatory
Commission, Ministry
of Information and
Communication
Technology
Funding
Ministry of Finance,
Scientific Research
Fund, Applied Scientific
Research Fund, King
Abdullah Fund for
Development, USAID
Jordan Competitiveness
Program, ERDB
National Fund for
Enterprise Support,
Industrial Research and
Development Fund,
Oasis500
Silicon Badiya,
Research and
Development
Royal Scientific Center,
National Center for
Research and
Development
Royal Scientific Society,
National Center for
Agricultural Research
and Extension
Capacity Building
Queen Rania Center for
Entrepreneurship, Injaz,
Petra University
Innovation Center, King
Abdullah Fund for
Development.
Queen Rania Center for
Entrepreneurship,
Business Development
Center
Value Added Services
Incubation
Jordan University for
Science and Technology
Tech Incubator, Petra
University Innovation
Center, Philadelphia
iPark, Oasis500, Al-
Urdonia Lil-Ebdaa

7. 6
University Innovation
Center, University of
Jordan Innovation
Center, Academic
Entrepreneurship
Center of Excellence
Development Unite
Coaching and
Mentorship
Queen Rania Center for
Entrepreneurship
iPark, Queen Rania
Center for
Entrepreneurship,
Mowgli
Endeavor
Co-working
Spaces
Zain Innovation Center,
Tank by Umniah, Big by
Orange
Zain Innovation Center,
Tank by Umniah, Big by
Orange
Consulting JEDCO, iPark, Intaj
JEDCO, iPark, Endeavor,
Intaj
Intellectual
Property
Ipco, National Center
for Agricultural
Research and
Extension, Technology
Transfer Offices
Ipco, Technology
Transfer Offices
Entrepreneurship ecosystem status
From the above listing of the organizations, there are many organizations working in the early stage of
development, and limited number of organizations working on the late stages of development of
technology and introduction to market. On the other hand, despite the large number of organizations in
the early stages, the lack of coordination and synergy they are not achieving much.
1. Funding: The government actual spending on R&D in 2014 was 0.62% of the GDP, which is higher
than the spending on 2008 (0.43%), yet it very low. The funding given from the government mostly
is allocated to the universities through the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of
Finance. For example, the total spending on Energy research in 2014 was 2.6 million Jordanian
Dinar, even though the energy sector is considered to be the most challenging sector for the
Jordanian economy.
2. Policy: There are several innovation and R&D strategies were put in place, but when
communicating with the stakeholders of the entrepreneurship ecosystem, the response was that
they never heard of these strategies, or the strategies weren’t incorporated with their goals and
objectives.
3. Capacity building: There are a few organizations focusing on building the capacity of the early
stage entrepreneurs in Jordan and the students, yet those program are either targeting in
particular general business knowledge trainings, or financial planning training. There is a lack of
product development programs, innovation trainings, and customer development programs,
which are necessary for the entrepreneurs in order to validate their businesses. For the later
stages entrepreneurs, they are not special growth or development training or capacity building
programs provided.
4. Support services:

8. 7
a. Incubation: The incubators available today in the ecosystem are focusing on the early lab
stage and the technology testing and demonstration stage, those incubators are limited
and not spread across the country, which makes them hard to access to several
entrepreneurs in Jordanian cities far from the main cities (Amman and Irbid). On the other
hand, the incubators already in place today, are offering specific support and services for
entrepreneurs in ICT industry, and the they can’t offer most of the time the support
needed for other STEMM industries. For the Universities incubators, a main challenge
they are facing is funding, and universities policies which forces them to either look for
personal funding or at certain times drop-off the projects due to lack of funding.
b. Coaching and Mentorship: Organizations providing mentorship and coaching are limited
to the entrepreneurs enrolled in their programs, such as the Queen Rania National
Entrepreneurship Competition which provides mentorship for applicants who bases the
early stage of mentorship. The biggest challenge in providing mentorship and coaching
for the STEMM disciplines is finding the right experts and finding willing experts to
volunteer for some time, as these services are usually offered on voluntary bases.
c. Co-working spaces: The free co-working spaces for entrepreneurs in Jordan are offered
mainly by corporates such as the Telecom operators, those co-working spaces are
considerably good spaces for working and conducting meetings for early stage
entrepreneurs, the challenge is that they started diverting their mission towards events
and workshops spaces, which is affecting the original purpose of having a space where
entrepreneurs can conduct business.
d. Consulting: Culture of consulting and seeking advice for entrepreneurs here is not
supported due to several factors, yet there are few organizations who try offering
consultancy at cheap price and sometimes at no cost, those organizations though are not
being positioned as the place to go to seek advice.
e. Intellectual property: Intellectual property regulations and policies in Jordan are
considerably strong amongst the developing countries, yet sometimes the STEMM
innovators and entrepreneurs find it challenging to apply for patents due to the high
costs, and there is a very limited funding for applied research and patenting, and it’s
usually hard to access by entrepreneurs, for example the funding provided by the
government to the universities and the Scientific Research Fund is restricted to the
academic staff of the universities or the PhD holders and not accessible by the innovators
otherwise.
5. Research and Development: The main national R&D bodies are the Royal Scientific Society, the
National Center for Research and Development, and the National Center for Agricultural Research
and Extension, plus the Universities labs. The feedback generated from the entrepreneurs is that
those institutions are hard to get into unless you are a registered researcher, for the universities
it is usually available for professors and students of these universities can apply for access request
to access and use the labs, but for the community they can’t access the labs or research facilities
of the universities.