The 2026 CCIAS Entrepreneurship and Innovation Award created a route for student founders to present projects before a multidisciplinary jury. Six finalist teams represented fields including engineering, business, science and dentistry.
The competition was organized with Saint Joseph University’s entrepreneurship and employability teams, its South Lebanon campus, the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture in Sidon and South Lebanon, and Berytech.
That mix matters to Sidon’s technology ecosystem: universities can develop ideas, the chamber can connect them to regional businesses, and an established accelerator can help teams test whether a project has a viable market.
This report is an original Times of Sidon summary of USJ’s account of the 2026 competition.