Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) has hosted an opening ceremony of a new pilot project called "ICESCO Accelerator".
The goal of the project, launched jointly by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for ICESCO, the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) and NewSpace Innovation, is to develop the spheres of dynamic creativity technologies and culture through the implementation of accelerator programs in ICESCO member countries
The opening ceremony was attended by BHOS Rector Elmar Gasimov, First Deputy Minister of Culture Elnur Aliyev, ICESCO Science and Technology Advisor Muhammad Sharif, founder of NewSpace Innovation Leyla Tagizade, as well as school and university student startupers.
Opening the event, Rector of Baku Higher Oil School Elmar Gasimov greeted the guests. The rector expressed satisfaction with the fact that such an important event is being held at BHOS and thanked Minister of Culture Anar Karimov for this. Speaking about close relations between ICESCO and Azerbaijan, the rector stressed that this organization has always supported our country.
“ICESCO is a friend of Azerbaijan and has always supported Azerbaijan in all international processes. The fact that the First Vice President of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva is the ICESCO Goodwill Ambassador is a clear proof of the high level of our relations."
Speaking about the importance of the ICESCO Accelerator project, Elmar Gasimov said that 23 teams are participating in the project. The rector wished success to the teams of school and university students and gave them recommendations on the implementation of ideas and startup projects.
Wishing success to the project participants, First Deputy Minister of Culture Elnur Aliyev conveyed greetings from Minister Anar Karimov to the audience and noted that ICESCO is a special organization dealing with education, science and culture issues in Islamic countries and serving to further strengthen relations between the participating countries.
“This international organization supports Azerbaijan not only in education, science and culture, but also in many other areas. For almost 30 years of occupation of Azerbaijani territories, ICESCO had been on Azerbaijan’s side and has made concrete efforts to restore the territorial integrity of our country. It is very important that we are supported by such a large organization. It is gratifying that ICESCO is taking part in this project, being close to Azerbaijani youth. Youth is our future. In future, you will become specialists working in different fields, but you must remember that your highest goal is to serve your country."
Director General of ICESCO Salim bin Mohammed AlMalik and Head of the Administration of the Ministry of Culture, Secretary General of Azerbaijan National Commission for ICESCO Vasif Eyvazzade joined the event online. They expressed confidence in further strengthening of cooperation between Azerbaijan and ICESCO and shared their views on the project.
ICESCO General Director thanked BHOS Rector Elmar Gasimov for the warm welcome and high level of organization of the event. Salim bin Mohammed AlMalik noted that the project will be providing support to more than 150 creative startups in Muslim countries till the end of 2025.
ICESCO's Science and Technology Advisor Muhammad Sharif also emphasized the high level of relations with Azerbaijan, describing the project as a new stage of cooperation.
“The project will be carried out in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and will initially cover five sectors: agriculture, digital media, financial technology, entertainment and games, tourism and food technology”.
The founder of NewSpace Innovation, Leyla Tagizade, informed the audience about the ICESCO Accelerator project.
“The project consists of three stages. The teams participating in the project will be trained on topics such as Building a Business, Business Models, Customer Research. At the next stage of the project, intensive mentoring sessions will be held for six weeks. During this period, the teams will finalize their ideas, prepare proposals and prototypes and present them to the jury. The three best teams from each country will participate in the final. At the third stage, finalists from each country will compete for prizes by presenting their startup ideas to investors and entrepreneurs”.
At the end of the event, the project participants got acquainted with the campus of Baku Higher Oil School.
