By opening 61 SAP Next-Gen Chapters at university campuses across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), SAP aims to connect customers with universities to spur innovation with purpose.
These chapters will collaborate with the nearly 1,900 educational institutions in the SAP Next-Gen program network in EMEA while also connecting to the global SAP Next-Gen program network of nearly 3,700 educational institutions in 116 countries. The objective is to share best practices for educating students with SAP skills and to inspire industries to work with academia to accelerate innovation and insights into the intelligent enterprise.
This announcement was made at the SAP Academic Conference EMEA in Munich, Germany, on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of Technical University of Munich as a University Competence Center.
“By connecting with researchers and academic thought leaders, and tapping the mindset of young people at universities, customers across EMEA can gain new insights into how digital technologies like blockchain, machine learning, and IoT can enable disruptive, new business models,” said Adaire Fox-Martin, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Global Customer Operations.
SAP Next-Gen Chapters are part of the SAP University Alliances program and its affiliated University Competence Center (UCC) and Academic Competence Center (ACC) locations. Chapters in EMEA include the UCC locations in Germany, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, and Technical University of Munich, and ACC locations in Austria, Technical University Vienna; Russia, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University; and Switzerland, University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland – Sierre.
Fifty-six other campuses are becoming SAP Next-Gen Chapters in the EMEA region, including in Armenia, Austria, Botswana, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. SAP expects to open more chapters in other countries in EMEA in the future.
“Many of the new SAP Next-Gen Chapters at universities across EMEA aim to partner with industry on ‘Innovation 3.0,’ where companies can crowdsource the embedded knowledge of a global community of purpose-driven innovators in academia, the startup world, non-profits, and institutions to enable companies and organizations globally to rapidly uncover new solutions to address the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals,” said Ann Rosenberg, senior vice president and global head of SAP Next-Gen.
Chapters enable SAP University Alliances member schools to accelerate education of next-generation leaders using latest SAP technologies. SAP customers can tap into this digitally savvy and purpose-focused talent pool to enable the digital transformation of companies into best-run, intelligent enterprises.
Cross-topic chapters offer a broad range of subjects that SAP Next-Gen offers universities and schools. Focus topic chapters specialize in areas such as:
- Digital core with SAP S/4HANA
- Digital innovation with analytics, machine learning, or blockchain technology
- Code with Purpose by SAP Next-Gen hackathons to foster a global movement of students developing disruptive solutions to social challenges
- New innovation methodologies, including science fiction thinking and purpose thinking
- #sheinnovates to make innovation and technology work better for young women and girls
- SAP Next-Gen Lab spaces supporting industry partners with SAP Next-Gen services for SAP Leonardo
