Community Innovation Programs

If you're an impact startup looking to set up in the UAE, here’s something you should know. I work with many impact-driven entrepreneurs eager to launch or expand in the UAE. But one mistake I see far too often? They try to do it all on their own, overlooking the power of incubators. The UAE has government-backed incubators designed to accelerate startup growth—offering everything from market access and mentorship to investor connections. If you're building a purpose-driven venture, these can be game-changers. Here are four incubators worth exploring: Hub71 (Abu Dhabi) 🔹 Focus: Tech and innovation startups 🔹 Why it matters: A dynamic ecosystem, Hub71 connects startups with investors, corporates, and government entities, providing equity-free incentives, mentorship, and access to global networks. The Authority of Social Contribution - Ma'an (Abu Dhabi) 🔹 Focus: Social impact ventures 🔹 Why it matters: Established by the Authority of Social Contribution – Ma’an supports mission-driven startups tackling social, cultural, and environmental challenges, helping turn ideas into sustainable businesses. in5 Dubai (Dubai) 🔹 Focus: Tech, media, science and design startups 🔹 Why it matters: Backed by TECOM Group, in5 operates innovation hubs in Dubai Internet City, Dubai Production City, Dubai Science Park and Dubai Design District, offering startups access to creative spaces, mentorship, and networking opportunities. Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa) (Sharjah) 🔹 Focus: Early-stage startups across industries 🔹 Why it matters: Supported by the Sharjah government, Sheraa helps startups access investors, mentorship, and workshops—nurturing a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Bottom Line: If you're serious about growing your impact startup in the UAE, don’t overlook these incubators. They can fast-track your success and open doors that would take years to unlock on your own. If you found this useful, share it with someone who needs to see it! #ImpactStartups #UAE #Sustainability #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #PurposeDriven #MENAStartups #BusinessForGood

Standing in a bustling Seoul street last year, I watched something remarkable unfold. What started as a typical city block transformed into a canvas for environmental change, vibrant artwork surrounding drains, turning potential litter spots into visual reminders of our shared responsibility. This wasn't just street art. It was community engagement in action. In #SouthKorea 🇰🇷, our Philip Morris International Korea team partnered with local government, the Korea Green Foundation, and local artists to tackle cigarette butt litter differently. Instead of just organizing clean-ups, they created an ecosystem of change: 400+ volunteers collecting 300 bags of waste, students creating anti-littering artwork, and entire neighborhoods becoming part of the solution. What struck me most was the ripple effect. One clean-up event in Yangsan evolved into a year-round sustainability hub. By September, 666 volunteers had collected over 18,000 cigarette butts, but more importantly, sparked conversations that are changing behaviors. Meanwhile in #Tunisia 🇹🇳, a different challenge led to equally innovative collaboration. Young entrepreneurs at startup Wayout developed "Zigofiltres"—simple cages for drains that prevent flooding by capturing cigarette butt litter before it blocks waterways. 246 of these devices now protect one of Tunisia's most flood-prone municipalities. Two countries. Two different ways of addressing a same challenge. One powerful lesson: when business, government, local innovators, and communities work together, environmental problems become opportunities for creative solutions. #Sustainability isn't just about corporate initiatives—it's about creating platforms where local ingenuity can flourish. 🌱 ♥️ Link to full case study here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/ePU_Bwkt #CommunityEngagement Cc: Borhann Rachdi, Abla Benslimane, Hannah Yun, Miguel Coleta, Maria V Agelvis, Kelly Lavender, Euigyum Hong

💸 Funding & Grants Series  Climate Incubators & Accelerators Supporting Indian Startups Every time I connect with founders through Bharat Climate Startups, I’m reminded of the one thing that makes or breaks an early-stage climate solution: ecosystem support. From regenerative agriculture to green mobility and plastic alternatives — startups need more than ideas. They need partners, labs, grants, and believers. This post features 5 climate-focused incubators and accelerators in India that offer grants, pilot funding, or non-dilutive support to help climate founders grow.👇 🔹  SINE (Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship -SINE IIT Bombay and Entrepreneurship) – IIT Bombay 💰 Provides non-dilutive grants and robust incubation support for technology-driven startups, including those in cleantech and climate tech. 📌 SINE’s focus on commercialization and innovation helps transform early ideas into impactful ventures. 🔹 NSRCEL – IIM Bangalore 💰 Supports social and technology startups with incubator programs that include grants, mentorship, and ecosystem access—ideal for climate innovators. 📌 NSRCEL’s extensive network and tailored support have helped many founders accelerate their impact. 🔹 T-Hub –Hyderabad  💰 An accelerator that runs specialized cohorts—including sustainability and climate tech tracks—with grants, pilot funding, and hands-on support. 📌 T-Hub’s dynamic environment connects startups to investors, mentors, and corporate partners. 🔹 Climate Collective – Climate Launchpad & Climate Ready Programs 💰 Grants, pre-seed support & founder mentorship 📌 Focused on cleantech, carbon markets, climate fintech, nature-based solutions 🌱 Supported by European Union, Asian Development Bank, and global partners 📩 Working on a climate solution and exploring incubator or accelerator programs? Drop me a message—I’d love to connect and share insights from my travels across India. Here's to building a vibrant support ecosystem for climate innovators! 💚 #ClimateAction #ImpactFunding #BharatClimateStartups

Necessity fuels innovation and determination. We saw this truth in action in Parsa, a remote village in Northern India. There, families relied on costly and unreliable diesel generators. The need for a better solution drove our team to design state-of-the-art mini-grids tailored to the community’s needs. The journey wasn’t easy. Challenges arose and even with the progress, not every grid was a success. Especially early on, geography was destiny: Some villages were bad fits for the mini-grids because of their demand or their layout. But with technical expertise and strong partnerships, the team persisted—and succeeded. No longer were the traditional government grid model or a string of diesel generators the only ways to power a village. The mini-grid’s power was competitively priced, eventually around $0.25 per kilowatt hour, and much more reliable than the state grid and far cheaper than diesel. Walking through Parsa, I saw the transformation firsthand. Reliable, affordable energy was powering homes, businesses, and livelihoods. This is proof that bold solutions create opportunity and lasting impact.

Queenstown may be the most strategically important region in New Zealand without a university. For decades, its growth model has been tourism. Successful, but narrow. The current push to develop a technology cluster reflects a wider ambition to diversify the regional economy and build a more resilient economy. That shift will not happen through startups alone. Every successful regional innovation ecosystem begins with capability. Education is usually the anchor. The NZ Herald reports that the University of Otago is expanding into Queenstown with new programmes and partnerships with technology firms, with courses being co-designed with industry rather than simply delivered by the university. That approach recognises something important. Universities do not build regional ecosystems by exporting degrees. They do it by embedding themselves in the local capability system. But how this is done will matter. Successful ecosystems are rarely created simply by opening a campus. They emerge when education, industry collaboration, professional learning, and entrepreneurship reinforce each other over time. Executive and professional education often plays a critical early role, helping firms and institutions build capability while research activity and degree programmes mature. Queenstown already has many of the ingredients: global connectivity, entrepreneurial residents, investment capital, and a powerful international brand. What it has lacked is a durable institutional anchor. Otago’s move has the potential to provide exactly that. If developed thoughtfully, the Queenstown presence could become a focal point for capability development that connects regional firms, national networks, and international partners. Queenstown is an important place to watch. If this initiative succeeds, it could become one of the most interesting regional economic development experiments in New Zealand. 👉 https://lnkd.in/eR-Uzqce

What if your power came from your neighborhood, not a big utility miles away? That’s the idea behind Utility-Lite, and it’s starting to catch on, especially in Hawai‘i. Utility-Lite is a new model where smaller energy providers install and manage local solar, battery, and microgrid systems. Unlike traditional utilities that control generation, transmission, and billing, Utility-Lite groups focus only on what’s needed: powering homes and businesses directly, with less overhead and more flexibility. Hawai‘i is a natural fit. Each island runs its own grid, and importing fuel is expensive. Add in wildfires, storms, and long delays for grid upgrades, and communities are looking for faster, local solutions. Recent policy shifts like Act 197 are helping open the grid to non-utility players for the first time. Imagine a neighborhood that installs its own solar + battery systems, managed by a local nonprofit. They stay connected to the grid, but rely on it less, pay a fixed monthly rate, and keep energy dollars in the community. Could Utility-Lite be the future for more places, especially those underserved or tired of waiting? Curious to hear your thoughts.

🔆 Empowering Change with Solar Mirror Kitchens in South Africa I’m excited to share a powerful example of innovation, sustainability and social impact: in South Africa, communities are embracing the concept of solar mirror kitchens — reflective, curved solar-cooking units that focus sunlight to cook food, boil water and bake — all without firewood, gas or grid‐electricity. Here’s why this matters: 1. Clean cooking, healthier lives Traditional cooking with firewood or biomass in many rural and off-grid areas causes significant indoor air pollution and associated health risks. Solar mirror kitchens offer a smoke-free alternative, improving household health and safety. 2. Reduced time and labour burden Gathering firewood is time-consuming and often falls disproportionately on women and children. With solar cooking, that burden is reduced — freeing up time for education, income-generation, or rest. 3. Sustainability & resource efficiency By harnessing abundant sunlight instead of depleting wood resources or relying on expensive fossil fuels, these systems align with circular, low-carbon, off-grid development. 4. Scalable, replicable design Because the technology is relatively simple — reflective mirrors or panels concentrating sunlight — the model holds strong potential for adaptation in other sun-rich, off-grid communities globally. ⸻ 🎯 What’s next / what we need to do • Collaborate across sectors (NGOs, governments, private sector) to scale deployment of solar-mirror cooking units in underserved regions. • Ensure training and local ownership so that communities maintain, adapt and own the technology long-term. • Integrate this with broader clean-energy, food-security and education programmes to maximize social impact. • Monitor and measure outcomes: health improvements, time savings, fuel-wood reduction, and economic empowerment. ⸻ 🌍 A bigger vision The story of solar mirror kitchens isn’t just about cooking differently — it’s about rewriting the narrative of energy equity. It’s about showing that clean, renewable solutions aren’t just for big power plants — they can start right in a rural kitchen, change daily routines, transform lives, and ripple outwards. If you’re working in renewable energy, sustainable development, off‐grid technologies or community empowerment — let’s connect and explore how we can bring more of these game-changing solutions to the places that need them most. #solarenergy #clean-cooking #offgrid #sustainabledevelopment #southafrica #renewables #Aarosafe.com

My latest commentary looks at what Ukraine’s wartime drone revolution can teach militaries worldwide, including the Singapore Armed Forces. Drones have shifted from niche tools to decisive battlefield assets. In Ukraine, small, agile drone units like the renowned Nemesis Regiment and Magyar’s Birds have fundamentally reshaped tactical engagements, transforming frontline operations into iterations of constant experimentation and adaptation.   Meanwhile, Magyar’s Birds have evolved from a small recon team to a brigade focused on attack drones, signals intelligence, and electronic warfare under commander Robert “Magyar” Brovdi. They have implemented low-cost, high-impact tactics, using fibre-optic FPV drones to both strike and intercept enemy systems.    For these innovative drone units, every mission becomes a tactical experiment generating immediate insights and operational adjustments. Success is tracked via a performance-based “drone league table,” with the best teams getting priority access to supplies. The culture is competitive, data-driven, and ruthlessly effective.   What can the SAF learn from Ukraninian military innovation?   It means going beyond teaching recruits how to fly drones. It requires developing specialised drone units structured more like high-performance startups than traditional line infantry. These units must be empowered to iterate quickly, on hardware, software, and tactics. Think of them as “innovation battalions” with engineers, software developers, and ISR specialists working side-by-side with combat operators.   Such SAF won’t emerge from existing pathways. Instead, it will require a culture of shared experimentation, rapid iteration, and intellectual diversity.     To enable such a culture, three pillars must underpin the SAF’s transformation. First, its leadership must be willing to absorb risk, empowering subordinates to innovate, experiment, and explore unconventional options.    Second, Singapore must build stronger bridges between the SAF, local start-ups, research universities, and global tech firms. The goal is not to outsource innovation but to foster co-creation, where military users shape requirements dynamically and developers adapt in real-time.   Third, Singapore’s defence ecosystem must be willing to invest in high-risk, high-reward technologies and explore their full range of operational pathways... more in the article below. #DefenceInnovation #Drones #Ukraine #MilitaryTechnology #InnovationCulture #SAF #Mindef #DSTA #Singapore #RSIS #AI

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐔.𝐒. 𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬 - 𝐈𝐭 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐖𝐚𝐫 A few days ago, Pete Hegseth called for a new “arsenal of freedom” backed by faster, smarter procurement. He’s 100% right. But there’s a crucial missing ingredient: 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐞𝐝. In Israel, we don’t wait for labs. We 𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞. 𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞-𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Israeli defense-tech is fielded in real combat - and refined in days, not years. 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐀𝐠𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲: Our military edge is backed by a startup nation DNA: rapid build → deploy → adapt → repeat. In defense, speed isn’t a buzzword - it’s a survival mechanism. 𝐄𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭: Engineers who build world-class platforms and then serve in combat units know exactly what a soldier needs to win. We connect the best people to the most important missions. If we want to truly free the warfighter, we don’t need to reinvent the ecosystem - 𝐰𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐢𝐭. If the U.S. and its allies want to build an agile arsenal, it’s time to build it with 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞. The tools to win tomorrow’s fight exist today. Let’s get them to the front lines, now.

I've consulted with a few economic development entities around spinning up an accelerator. My first piece of advice is usually "don't do it" because there are other things that need to happen before such a program can be effective, like developing an engaged and active local angel network that actually writes checks consistently. First step is usually a lower lift, like pitch competitions and meetups. If you've already received the mandate to establish an accelerator, I suggest the following: 1. Consider an incubator instead. A time-bound, cohort-based model (accelerator) has its benefits in terms of program experience, but doesn't necessarily result in better outcomes for the local economy. Incubators are more flexible and can enable more customizable experience for each company. 2. The entity running the program should be non-profit. Accelerators/incubators, if run properly, are loss leaders and require subsidies. However, there should be a for-profit fund attached to it, the purpose of which is to fund the top quartile/decile coming out of the incubator. 3. Develop a shared support services program within the incubator, but available (at a cost) for any company operating in your area of interest. Think of it like AAA for back office business services (accounting, basic legal, payroll, financial modeling, graphic design, social media management, virtual assistants, etc.). The purpose is not only to give discounted services to these companies, but actually shoulder some of the admin burden so they can focus on customer and product development. See startupok.org for an example. 4. Last, but not least, start with customer demand first, using a reverse incubator model. This likely means working with the local chamber of commerce (for B2B companies) and community organizations (for B2C companies) to identify unmet needs and quantify demand. Otherwise you'll spend too much time and resources attracting companies to come to your town/city/state for your program, who then have to move away because there aren't enough customers, investors, or local talent with the necessary skills to keep them there. The exception is companies that build physical products, who need a different set of incentives (logistics hubs, cheap power, sufficient labor pool, physical space, etc.).