The university participates in the Hult Prize competition, which is a competition for undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels from around the world. The teams compete to create new projects and institutions aimed at addressing a social challenge. The winning team receives a prize of $ 1 million in seed capital to launch their company and scale up the project.
The Hult Prize is an annual, year-long competition that crowd-sources ideas from MBA and college students after challenging them to solve a pressing social issue around topics such as food security, water access, energy, and education. It was founded by Ahmad Ashkar and is funded by Bertil Hult, the latter of whom, along with his family – founders of EF Education First – donates US$1 million in seed capital to help the winning team launch a social enterprise.
The Canna Med team from the Islamic University of Lebanon won the Hult Prize Paris Summit, which was launched in the French capital, and managed to achieve third place, surpassing Arab, foreign and international teams. The university was represented by two guest of honor: Dr. Leila Al-Zein and the student Adeeb Fouani (Head of the Organizing Committee), as it ranked in the first twenty places in the world in organizing the competition at the university level (On CampusProgram) fully organized.
The project, submitted by the Canna Med team, aims to change humanity by treating diseases with the cannabis plant. CBD OILS is extracted from it to treat cancer, Alzheimer’s, bone diseases and others. And this project could employ nearly 10,000 employees and return $ 340,000,000 annually. Thus, this project would have contributed to combating diseases, combating unemployment, and supporting the Lebanese economy.
The Islamic University also participated in the Jordan Summit Hult Prize competition, which was launched in the presence of the founder and CEO of Hult Prize Ahmed Al-Ashqar, General Director of Operations Karim Samra, Jamal Al-Khayyat (Lebanon National Director), Ayman Arandi (Jordan (National Director and Muhammad Samour) Regional Director) The Islamic University in Lebanon was represented by two teams: the Food For Less team, which included students: Muhammad Lakis, Diala Nasrallah, Ali Mortada, and Zahraa Abdel Sattar, and the Shop On Wheel team, which included students: Sherine Sharaf al-Din, Zainab Tufayli and Sandra Hamad, as well as The Islamic University was represented through two honorable guests, representatives of the university: Dr. Hisham Abu Diya and student Yasser Saad Hult Prize Campus Director, since the university was among the top twenty in the world in organizing the competition at the university level (On CampusProgram) fully organized.
This was the third year we were awarded the Hult Prize on our campus.
During this year, we were able to appoint two more Hult Prize campus directors: Qassem Qawis on the campus in Tire, and Muhammad Lakis from the campus in Baalbek in addition to Yasser Saad who is still in charge of the Wardenia campus and Khaldeh. The winning teams in the IUL are eligible to participate in the Gorgonilos.
And based on the social responsibility that the university bears towards society, and based on the vision of the Supreme Shiite Council, and the vision of the university, the Islamic University in Lebanon provides many services through several committees, including:
Paying attention to labor issues, workers, housing issues for the needy, low-income people and low-income people.