Open Innovation & Youth Entrepreneurship in the Mediterranean Agrifood Sector

CIHEAM Bari and LUM University “Giuseppe Degennaro” (LUM) are launching the international Master programme in “Open Innovation & Youth Entrepreneurship in the Mediterranean Agrifood Sector”, in collaboration with Almacube (the spin-off of the University of Bologna specialized in open innovation), BUSINESSMED - main representative of the private sector with 25 Confederations of Enterprises from States members of the Union for the Mediterranean – UfM, UNIMED – Mediterranean Universities Union – network of Higher Education and Research Institutions in the Euro-Mediterranean region, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and Western Balkans, and with the technical support of the Mediterranean Innovation Partnership (MIP), the Mediterranean Innovation Hub and national and international companies.

The course is organized into weekly units covering a total of 1500 hours (60 ECTS credits) – including 286 hours of face-to-face lectures and 132 hours of laboratory and project work with companies, complemented by individual and teamwork activities and more than 300 hours of internship at private companies. The working language is English.
The Master's course objective is to train a new generation of innovation managers. More specifically, through applying a new mindset and new methodological approaches (Design Thinking, Lean Startup), students are accompanied through the creation, prototype development, and enhancement of innovative entrepreneurship ideas (new products/services for new markets) in the agri-food field, from production chain to food consumption, health aspects and circular economy.
Training will focus on both technological innovation and social innovation for a new business generation. They will adopt a new approach in conducting activities based on learning by doing with a strong interaction with startups and successful businesses that will be involved in all the modules of the Master programme.
The course is structured in two parts: the first part that provides participants with
fundamental concepts to master the following subjects: Start-up & Entrepreneurial mindset, Business Model Design for continuous innovation, Agile Methods & Change Management, Agri-food Innovation, Social Innovation, Communication & Marketing for Startups.
The second part (project works with companies) aims at helping students develop an innovative solution for a selected company using the Open Innovation process and the Design Thinking methodology. The internship phase is closely related to the activities developed during the project works and will be carried out at national and international companies.
In terms of job placement, the Master course aims at creating the following professional profiles:
1. Self-entrepreneur
2. Innovation manager: expert in the management of innovation processes
3. Innovation broker: specialist in knowledge transfer between research institutions and companies.