Country Partnerships

Overview

Do you wish your country had its own SU? The Singularity University (SU) Country Partnership is a unique opportunity for past participants of SU programs to work with local governments, educational institutions, foundations and NGOs, and corporate sponsors in partnership with SU to elevate the state of innovation in their respective countries and bring us all closer to an abundant future.

These partnerships accelerate the organic growth of innovation—and extend SU’s mission—across the globe by enabling teams of change agents to deliver SU’s programs, community activities, and innovation hubs in their own countries tailored to the local context. Operating under the SingularityU brand, all programs are delivered by certified SU faculty who are experts in exponential technologies, exponential leadership, exponential organizations, and our proven curriculum to help promote innovative solutions to humanity’s grand challenges. They also identify and develop new product and thought leadership.

This is the most intensive partnership we offer. And while it’s a major undertaking to unite many stakeholders around a common purpose of catalyzing innovation, the benefits of doing so are immense. To date, Singularity University has seven Country Partners: SingularityU The Netherlands (2016), SingularityU Nordic (2017), SingularityU Canada (2018), SingularityU Portugal (2018), SingularityU South Africa (2018), SingularityU Italy (2018) and SingularityU Brazil (2019).

SingularityU Canada is a not-for-profit organization inspiring and enabling more Canadians to think BIG, take risks, and drive global impact. SingularityU Canada creates an inclusive dialogue and platform providing the mindset, skillset, and network Canada needs to remain relevant and resilient and offers tailored programs and events convening global experts, cross-industry leaders, and curious minds striving to solve our biggest global challenges using new disruptive innovations. Read about the partnership.

Why Canada?

Canada stands as a beacon to the world and is attracting leading global companies. Its multicultural communities, diverse industries, and positive attitudes not only make the country an incredible place to live and work but also drives economic strength and global impact.

SingularityU The Netherlands is a benefit corporation committed to creating positive and sustainable global impact through its programs, which give people the tools and guidance to understand and apply cutting-edge technologies and to reimagine and reinvent their industries, companies, careers, and lives. Read about the partnership.

Why The Netherlands?

The Netherlands is an ideal testbed for innovation that many consider Europe’s most connected ecosystem. It has always been a safe haven for people who think differently while shaping tomorrow’s society, and a place for pioneers in the arts, culture, and international trade.

SingularityU Portugal is a joint venture that aims to become the main catalyst of a uniquely futuristic and exponential mindset in Portugal. The organization designs curated programs and events to help individuals and organizations adopt an exponential mindset and unlock new sources of innovation that will transform their organizations, their industries, and their world.

Three organizations joined forces to build SingularityU Portugal—Cascais Municipality, Beta-i, and Nova School of Business and Economics—a cross-sector and long-lasting partnership, joined by Ageas, Galp, and Semapa as Founding Partners, that believes individuals, organizations, and our society already possesses the power to change the future.

We are committed to exposing more and more Portuguese to timely and important breakthrough content that has the power to impact the way we live and work, while also broadcasting leading-edge Portuguese research and innovation breakthroughs to the world.

Why Portugal?

For the past eight years, the country has been emerging as one of the most promising startup ecosystems in Europe, embracing a new age of technological growth.

Portugal is also perceived as a stable place to do business, which is attracting foreign investment—especially technological investment. These factors combined are demanding Portuguese companies to empower their leaders with an agile and disruptive mindset to succeed in a world of constant technological change.

As Peter Diamandis says: “The rate of technological change is accelerating so fast that our ability to understand the implications of it has never been so challenging and so important.” This reality has never been truer in Portugal, and SingularityU Portugal was created precisely to help prepare Portuguese leaders for this challenging, disruptive, yet exciting future. Portugal now has the chance to contribute to the rise of a new mindset.

What Is SU South Africa?

SingularityU South Africa runs education, innovation, and impact programmes that help others leverage rapidly accelerating technologies—including artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, blockchain, and digital biology—in innovative ways to unlock solutions that can positively impact millions, if not billions, of lives. We aim to create a network of empowered changemakers that will leverage their expertise, in combination with Singularity University, across the continent.

Why South Africa?

South Africa is Africa’s largest economy and is often referred to as the gateway to the continent. South Africa is one of the G20 countries and has a burgeoning tech ecosystem. Numerous South Africans have played a part in shaping our future, with inventions such as the CATscan and performing the world’s first heart transplant. Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, hails from South Africa. The country offers many opportunities for investment and tech development, while boasting untapped economic potential, particularly among the burgeoning youthful population, which is hungry for direction and purpose. Thus, it’s very important to shape African mindsets to move in a direction that will create abundance, holistic wellbeing, and success for our society. It is for this reason that SingularityU’s values and approach are so important in our country. Moreover, we want to bring the power of SingularityU to the continent to #futureproofAfrica.

SingularityU Italy is a certified Benefit Corporation, integrating its business purpose, in addition to its profit objectives, with the aim of having a positive impact on society and the environment. SingularityU Italy aims to gather thinkers, scientists, academics, and entrepreneurs who are keen on exponential technologies and their applications, in order to educate the Italian business community and to accelerate a local innovation culture.

Why Italy?

Italian excellence is famous all over the world in different realms: art, fashion, design, culture, food, entertainment, automotive, and industrial robotics. For its technological readiness and economic development, the country is well prepared to take advantage of all SU programs. Moreover, Italy was the first country outside the USA to implement specific legislation for Benefit Corporations, so now it recognizes the positive role of entrepreneurship in society in fundamental ways, which however must be sustainable from the point of view of all stakeholders, society, and ecosystems at large.

SingularityU Brazil is a strategic partnership between HSM and Singularity University (SU) to deliver localized versions of SU’s transformative programs to Brazilian entrepreneurs and executives. Located in São Paulo, the company aims to help Brazilian organizations and leaders better understand and anticipate the potential impact of exponential technologies and trends and prepare them to take action. Through SU’s strategy, leadership, and innovation models and tools, SingularityU Brazil will help organizations reinvent themselves to better navigate the uncertain future ahead. Programs will deliver valuable content in such areas as artificial intelligence, robotics, digital biology, medicine, neuroscience, digital fabrication, nanotechnology, networks & computing systems (including quantum computing), virtual reality, and blockchain.

Why Brazil?

By bridging Brazil’s main gaps (learning, health, public security and infrastructure) and strengthening Brazil’s main opportunities (food, energy, environment, and prosperity), SingularityU Brazil can be the spark to leapfrog Brazil into the exponential world, and bring a new sense of hope to our youth and population in general. Since its founding 11 years ago, a significant number of Brazilians have attended SU courses. For that reason, it was a natural next step for SU to partner with HSM to establish a strong presence in Brazil to further contribute to the empowerment of leaders to the exponential world. Brazil is the first SU Country Partner in Latin America.

Why Partner with SU

Selected Country Partners represent the most forward-looking countries in the world. Host countries gain significant competitive advantages through a deepened commitment to entrepreneurship, investment in innovation, and exposure to new technologies. Partners also help cultivate new ways of envisioning the future within their countries by showcasing the potential of exponential technologies.

If you become a Country Partner, we’ll work closely with your local team to help you enable these outcomes. We’ll create tailored training and education programs for you to deliver to your country’s business and political leaders that share new ways to approach problems. Using our frameworks, you’ll be able to identify ways to help your country form agile governments that offer creative, dynamic solutions to better respond to people’s needs. Moreover, you’ll have valuable opportunities for networking and collaboration with other like-minded change agents and unlocks new sources of thought leadership.

We’ll seed a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in your country through a series of public and private events that prepare your country to support the rise of new businesses built around exponential technologies. Business communities throughout your country will thrive as they learn how to apply bold thinking and the latest technologies to develop scalable solutions to the world’s most urgent challenges.

Who We Look For

Do you already have a significant business relationship with SU that you’re looking to take to the next level? This partnership may be right for you!

This is our most intensive level of partnership, and therefore it’s not an entry-level engagement. We view SingularityU Summit organizers as the best potential Country Partners, because they already demonstrate the capacity to:

• Recruit and partner with sponsors
• Bring the necessary stakeholders to the table, including corporations, governments, universities, and the nonprofit and philanthropy sectors
• Lead large cross-functional teams
• Organize large-scale events and conferences
• Collaborate with the broader SU community (i.e., community leaders, innovators, change agents, and past SU program participants around the world)

Read about our partnership with Denmark.

If you’ve already been a Summit Partner and are ready to take the next step, let’s start the conversation!

Are you just starting down this path? We welcome you to explore new ways to get involved with SU if you’re not at this stage yet, and we look forward to getting to know you better!

Ready to take the next step?

If you’ve been a SingularityU Summit organizer and are ready to take things to the next level, let’s talk! Share your contact information, and we’ll be in touch.

If you don’t have a prior business relationship with SU, there are many ways to start down this path. Explore ways to get involved with SU.