On November 7-11, within the framework of the US-Georgia "University Capacity Development Program" (UCBP), Caucasus University hosts the representatives of George Washington University, Bob Smith, the Director of Lean Startup programming, and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) programming director and Kerry Slater, Manager of International Entrepreneurship Programs.

The experts held the first working meeting with the President of the Caucasus University, Dr. Kakha Shengelia, and the Vice-President for Internationalization, Irena Melua. During the meeting, the parties discussed the activities planned within the framework of the visit, entrepreneurial education and the processes of innovation and commercialization at Caucasus University were also discussed.

A meeting was also held with the respective deans of the Caucasus University's School of Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences, School of Governance, School of Education, as well as School of Business and School of Economics.

During the meeting, the parties discussed the experience and future plans of each school, in the direction of innovation and technology management, technology transfer, entrepreneurship promotion and research commercialization, as well as the need to strengthen the involvement of business and government structures in this process. Caucasus University representatives had the opportunity to get more information about American practices and approaches. At the end of the meeting, content issues related to each program were discussed in a Q&A mode.

As part of the visit, meetings are also planned with the academic staff of the Caucasus University, the Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Georgia, the general director of the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia, the USAID Economic Security Program and the Georgian Innovation and Technology Agency (GITA).

US-Georgia University Capacity Building Program (UCBP) is administered by the American Councils for International Education and is financially supported by the US Embassy in Georgia.