Fostering Innovation

The MCA activity includes a number of initiatives aimed at fostering an innovation culture in Malta. Initiatives focus on encouraging and promoting home-grown tech entrepreneurship, as well as the granting of official recognition to Malta’s success stories. To address its innovation mandate, the Authoritychannels significant effort towards promoting a culture that favours home-grown tech entrepreneurship. In 2014, the MCA forged an alliance with TAKEOFF Business Incubator at the University of Malta and oversaw the granting of a €20,000 seed fund to a promising tech startup.

In 2015, the MCA organised Budding Rockstars to raise awareness on tech entrepreneurship amongst Secondary school students. The event was attended by 145 students and their accompanying teachers and career guidance staff from across 40 schools in Malta and Gozo. By drawing on the students’ academic performance in the preceding year, the event successfully targeted Malta’s brightest young minds, seeking to instil in them an entrepreneurial mindset.

To further support tech entrepreneurship, the MCA is nowadays also recognising Malta’s Best Tech Start-Up in the annual MCA eBusiness Awards. Additionally, seven individuals were recognised as Tech Ambassadors at the ZEST conference held in June 2016.