Israel’s IDC to start new entrepreneur study program

Israel’s IDC Herzliya will start a new program in October to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, the institute for higher education said.

The one-year program for holders of a BA, called IDCBeyond, will include a curriculum of interdisciplinary training in technology, biomedicine, globalization and sustainability and at the same time will encourage participants to set up ventures from the very start, with the assistance of mentors from academia and industry.

At the end of the school year, those with exceptional initiatives will participate in an accelerator and will be rewarded with access to venture capital funds and networking to further promote their projects, IDC said.

Postgraduate students who show a “unique and pioneering thinking and a strong passion for entrepreneurship” and who have a background in science and medicine, engineering, computer science, business administration, design and architecture can apply for the program, IDC said.

Students at Herzliya’s IDC. (Courtesy)

Nava Swersky Sofer, a technology entrepreneur, will head the program, which will be part of the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship at IDC. Swersky Sofer has over 25 years of international experience as an entrepreneur and manager, is an investor in venture capital and is an expert in the fields of innovation and technology commercialization, IDC said.

Swersky Sofer is also a member of international forums for innovation and technology promotion, a director at several companies, and the former president and CEO of Yissum, the technology commercialization company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

IDC was founded in 1994 by Prof. Uriel Reichman as a private, nonprofit institution for higher education that doesn’t rely on government subsidies.