Knowledge and Innovation Communities - Governance Expert - Lebanon Innovate

Berytech is a leading organization in the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Lebanon, that aims to provide a conducive environment for the creation and development of startups, through incubation, business support, counseling, funding, networking, and company hosting, hence taking part in the economic revival of the country, participating in wealth and job creation, and retaining graduates and high-level skills in Lebanon.  

Lebanon Innovate is a 42-month European Union-funded initiative, aimed at advancing Lebanese research into market-ready innovations in key sectors such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT), healthcare, and agrifood. The program is designed to enhance Lebanon's entrepreneurial ecosystem, encouraging partnerships between academia and industry, and emphasizing intellectual property protection and international networking to catalyze economic and innovative development in Lebanon.

The program aims to:

• Enhance competitiveness in sectors like agrifood, healthcare, and ICT.
• Support stakeholder empowerment for knowledge sharing and commercialization.
• Foster industry-academia partnerships for innovation.
• Connect with European countries and diaspora networks for global market access.

This Terms of Reference (TOR) falls under one of the key activities of the Lebanon Innovate Program, specifically aimed at empowering and operationalizing the newly established Knowledge & Innovation Communities (KICs) across the Agrifood, Healthcare, and ICT sectors.

Through the Lebanon Innovate program, Berytech has established three Knowledge & Innovation Communities (KICs) spanning the Agrifood, Healthcare, and ICT sectors. These communities actively bring together academia, industry professionals, government representatives, and Business Support Organizations (BSOs) around a shared innovation agenda targeted at promoting knowledge and technology transfer in Lebanon.

As these communities grow and formalize their operations, establishing clear, functional, and sustainable governance frameworks is essential. Without structured governance, KICs risk operational ambiguity, inconsistent decision-making, misaligned stakeholder mandates, and limited long-term sustainability. An expert consultant in organizational development and governance is required to design and deliver specialized capacity-building intervention. This training will enable KIC members to collectively develop practical governance structures, define clear roles and decision-making processes, and establish accountable and transparent operating procedures across sectors.

The objective of this consultancy is to equip KIC members with a ready-to-implement governance framework and tools that enable autonomous operation, strengthen institutional credibility, and support the advancement of the national innovation agenda.

Berytech is seeking an experienced Governance Expert to assess the current state of the three KICs and design tailored governance frameworks that support their effective, transparent, and sustainable operation across the Agrifood, Healthcare, and ICT sectors.

The expert is expected to cover the following areas:

Governance Training & Assessment:

• Conduct a structured assessment of key stakeholders within each KIC to understand their current operational landscape, stakeholder composition, coordination dynamics, and governance gaps.

Governance Strategy & Charter Co-Drafting:

• Facilitate workshops to design a tailored Governance structure for each KIC, aligned with their strategic priorities. Resulting in organizational structures, roles and responsibilities, decision-making processes, accountability mechanisms, and conflict resolution pathways across KICs.

Institutionalization & Final Outputs

• Lead the consolidation of a formal Governance Charter for each KIC, co-owned by all members. Ensure agreement on implementation arrangements, including designation of a Charter Owner and providing guidance on activation timelines and ownership designation.

Governance Assessment Report

• Summary of stakeholder mapping, operational gaps, and cross-sector coordination challenges across the three KICs.

Governance Training Package

• Delivered training sessions on ecosystem governance, cluster models, and international best practices, including supporting materials and tools.

KIC Governance Canvas

• Three customized governance frameworks (one per KIC) co-designed with stakeholders and defining organizational structures, roles and responsibilities, decision-making processes, and accountability mechanisms.

Draft Governance Charter

• Three fully developed institutional charters (one per KIC) outlining operational rules, conflict resolution mechanisms, and governance structures.

• A degree in Law, Public Administration, Corporate Governance, Business Administration, Political Science, or a related field. An advanced degree (MBA, Master of Laws, or equivalent) is preferred.
• At least 5 years of proven experience in organizational governance, institutional design, or capacity building, particularly within multi-stakeholder environments such as innovation ecosystems, public-private partnerships, cluster organizations, or university-industry collaborations.
• Strong expertise in designing governance instruments, including charters, bylaws, governance canvases, decision-making frameworks, and dispute-resolution mechanisms for complex multi-actor systems.
• Demonstrated ability to assess institutional structures, identify governance risks, operational bottlenecks, and alignment gaps across local, regional, and international ecosystem levels.
• Proven experience in both qualitative diagnostic approaches and facilitation methodologies, including stakeholder mapping, participatory workshops, and structured co-creation and consensus-building processes.
• Ability to synthesize diverse stakeholder inputs into clear, actionable, and legally coherent governance frameworks, operational roadmaps, and implementation guidelines.
• Familiarity with the agrifood, healthcare, and ICT innovation ecosystems, including regulatory environments, academic constraints, and private sector operational dynamics, particularly within Lebanon.