Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairman of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, today witnessed the virtual “Empowering Innovation” event, which highlighted the Foundation’s leadership in the field of research, development and innovation, and reviewed its latest achievements and future projects.
The event organized by the Industrial Development and Knowledge Transfer Office of the Research, Development and Innovation Sector at Qatar Foundation included an awards ceremony for inventors, and the unveiling of the “innovation wall”, with the participation of a group of researchers and innovators at Qatar Foundation, and representatives of research and academic institutions from the research and development community. And innovation in the State of Qatar.
The “Empowering Innovation” event, which is held over two days (14-15 October), coincides with the Foundation’s celebration of 25 years of its leadership in the research, innovation and business sector, and its main role in promoting social development, spreading a culture of lifelong learning, and preparing bright minds to face future challenges. .
Dr. Richard O’Kinde, Vice President of Research, Development and Innovation at Qatar Foundation, explained ways to support the research, development and innovation sector at Qatar Foundation for the innovation system in the State of Qatar, in a way that meets national needs and provides effective solutions to national and global challenges.
He explained that the landscape of research, development and innovation at Qatar Foundation includes infrastructure, talent, and policies with partners in academia and technology, entrepreneurship, and healthcare. And that this structure allows the process of exchanging knowledge, enhancing skills and technologies, thus achieving prosperity in the development of the scientific community and economic growth.
Dr. Okende reviewed the mechanisms of the Innovation Coupon, Innovation Fellowship, Entrepreneurship License, in addition to the Technology Projects Fund provided by Qatar Science and Technology Park, by highlighting some of the support mechanisms established by the Foundation’s research, development and innovation sector with the aim of supporting inventors and innovators in developing and transforming their ideas. Into commercially marketable products.
Dr. Okendi announced the development of the Industrial Development and Knowledge Transfer Office for a new website that supports the research process, as well as the development of complementary tools in the form of manuals designed to assist members of the Qatari community in working with researchers, inventors, technologists, and businessmen in the research, development and innovation sector of Qatar Foundation. He also unveiled the Digital Innovation Wall, which is a virtual display of about 80 patents that have been granted to Qatar Foundation in recent years.
Dr. Okende stressed that such initiatives, and many others, enable people to invent and innovate, expressing his confidence that the next stage will witness more patents being registered and better solutions to meet national and global challenges.
For his part, Wesley Blakesley, an expert in intellectual property policy and innovation infrastructure, provided an overview of Qatar Foundation’s initiatives in the field of developing policies related to intellectual property and entrepreneurship, and how the institution supports this type of initiative in a way that contributes to strengthening the innovation system.
The first day of the “Empowering Innovation” event concluded with a ceremony to honor members of the research, development and innovation community at Qatar Foundation, who, through their distinguished ideas and innovations, made valuable contributions to meet the needs of the State of Qatar.
In this context, Dr. Karim Darwish, from the Qatar Computing Research Institute, was awarded the “Best Innovator of the Year 2020” award, and Dr. Nimer Al-Bashir, from Texas A&M University in Qatar, one of Qatar Foundation’s partner universities, was awarded the “Best Inventor of the Year 2020” award. . The “Automated Character Creation” project, which is a tool for generating user personalities by collecting social media data, from Qatar Computing Research Institute, won the “Best Innovation of 2020” award.
Dr. Richard O’Kinde also honored the main contributors to the commercial licensing activity, stressing the role of the Qatar Foundation team, which played a vital role in facilitating successful licensing of inventions or creative works for commercial purposes.
The second day of the event includes a high-level panel discussion on the importance of focusing on technology development and marketing activities in order to achieve more impactful results. With the participation of prominent leaders and experts from Qatar Research and Innovation Development Council, Qatar Development Bank, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Qatar Scientific Research Fund, Qatar Science and Technology Park, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, and the Qatar Foundation Research, Development and Innovation sector.
The event concludes with an interesting narration of the Qatar Foundation journey and what it has reached now, with an indication of the available academic resources, as well as an overview of its institutions and research centers.
Since its inception, Qatar Foundation has obtained an increasing number of national and international patents. These successes confirm the relentless efforts of Qatar Foundation to support the development of solutions to national and global challenges, as well as the ability of the research, development and innovation infrastructure to develop ideas and turn them into influential innovations ready for the market.
