• Morocco’s UM6P has launched a Global Hub in New York and Cambridge to link Africa with global innovation networks.

• The hub will support joint research, student exchanges, start-up funding, and cross-border entrepreneurship.

• The move is part of UM6P’s international expansion, with campuses already in Canada and France.

Morocco’s Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) announced on Monday, September 8, the official launch of its Global Hub in the United States, with offices in New York and Cambridge. The hub is designed to connect African talent with leading international ecosystems in research, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

“The goal of this new hub is to directly address Morocco’s and Africa’s urgent challenges by combining rigorous scientific research with practical, scalable solutions, helping the Kingdom build pathways toward technological sovereignty,” said UM6P president Said Hicham El Habti.

The U.S. Global Hub is structured as a two-way platform. It will promote joint research projects, student exchanges, and cross-border entrepreneurial collaborations. The center also provides African start-ups with privileged access to venture capital and North American tech networks, while helping adapt U.S.-developed innovations to African realities. In addition, immersion programs will expose African leaders to international innovation practices.

This move is part of UM6P’s broader global expansion strategy, which already includes new campuses in Canada and France. It also reflects Morocco’s ambition to position itself as Africa’s anchor point for research and scientific investment.

Since its creation in 2017, UM6P has enrolled nearly 7,300 students from 40 nationalities, including 1,000 doctoral candidates. Its entrepreneurial ecosystem has supported more than 1,000 project holders and forged over 200 international partnerships with institutions such as MIT, Stanford, Columbia Business School, and Arizona State University. The U.S. hub strengthens this mission by engaging the African diaspora as a strategic resource to co-develop innovative projects across both continents.

Beyond academic cooperation, UM6P’s American hub aims to tackle three key weaknesses in Africa’s innovation ecosystem: limited global visibility in research, underutilization of the diaspora as a strategic lever, and difficulties in translating international technological advances into solutions tailored to local realities. The challenge now lies in turning this ambition into tangible, inclusive results that bring real value to African societies.

Samira Njoya