Asper Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Asper Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ACE) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was established in 2001 by Israel Asper z”l and Babs Asper z”l.  They recognized the crucial role entrepreneurship would play in strengthening Israel and through The Asper Foundation donated a $5 million endowment to create one of Israel’s first such centres.  From its inception, the Centre was a place of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking.  Lean and nimble, the team was given the flexibility to create impactful, one-of-a-kind programs.

One of ACE’s landmark initiatives was a partnership with business leaders in Sur Baher, the Jerusalem Foundation and the Israel Small Business Loan Association dedicated to developing a micro-finance movement in East Jerusalem and the surrounding villages.  This program has now been spun off and has subsequently created hundreds of businesses and some 18,000 much-needed jobs. It is one of the first government-supported initiatives that has successfully garnered the trust and support of the local Arab community.

Over the years, ACE has supported research and teaching related to Entrepreneurship as well as conferences, lectures, workshops and seminars, in which leading international scholars present their findings.  ACE supports entrepreneurship- and strategy-related teaching, including interdisciplinary entrepreneurship-related courses, such as the BioDesign Seminar, the brainchild of Dan Galai, professor at the School of Business Administration at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which brings together teams of business, computer science and medical students and professionals to develop medical device solutions. Interdisciplinary in nature, the BioDesign faculty includes course leaders from the School of Engineering and Computer Science, mentors from the Faculty of Medicine and the School of Business Administration and participation from industry leaders. Hadassah Hospital, Yissum, and Hadasit (the commercialization company of Hadassah) are also involved in all BioDesign projects. In 2021, the seminar won an award from the Global Association of Business Schools Worldwide as one of the 25 most innovative teaching programs in all participating schools.

Another one-of-a-kind initiative is the BioMed MBA Program for professionals from this industry with entrepreneurial aspirations. Several years ago, Teva Pharmaceuticals was downsizing and hundreds of senior level people were being laid off.  Recognizing that in Israel there were very few opportunities for top professionals in this field, the BioMed MBA program was launched to help enable many of them to develop the skills they would need to start new enterprises, greatly expand the Israel-based field and provide opportunities for these field leaders to remain active in Israel.

ACE also supports condensed guest courses taught by leading faculty members from prominent international business schools, runs a program called Meet the CEO where students and faculty hear from some of Israel’s leading entrepreneurs, FinTech courses, the Transdisciplinary Innovation Program and MBA Mini-Workshops.

In 2015, ACE launched Asper-HUJI Innovate to integrate entrepreneurship throughout the university and into the Jerusalem community. See Asper-HUJI Innovate for more information.