Qatar, a global test bed for innovation: QRDI official

Qatar Research Development and Innovation (QRDI) Council is acting as a facilitator to make the country a test bed for international organisations to set up their initiatives, an official told Gulf Times.

“There are many initiatives that we are promoting to invite startups and companies from abroad to come and set up in Qatar to see Qatar as a test bed for their innovative solutions and to develop their technology in Qatar,” Malik Habayeb, international partnerships programme expert at QRDI explained.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event in collaboration with Thailand embassy in Doha, the official stated that the main goal at QRDI is to help these institutions find the right partner in Qatar.

"QRDI is a funding agency and our mandate is certainly to build the partnerships and foster these partnerships. This is our goal for our partners from any country around the world. This is why Qatar is investing heavily in the technology space.”

Habayeb said that there are unique opportunities where corporates and startups can come to Qatar, check out the ecosystem and get acquainted with the cutting-edge infrastructure that the country offers.

The unique part of QRDI research portfolio is that it allows 20% of the grants to be spent outside the country.

“However, the lead investigator in a research project has to be based in Qatar and they can collaborate with the research entities abroad. What we are trying to explain to our partners in Thailand as well as elsewhere in the world is that they are very much eligible to apply to engage with a local lead principal investigator in Qatar, if they have a project that is of mutual interest,” continued, Habayeb.

“The lead investigator can be any university or research institutes with a registered research office in Qatar . As long as there is a registered research office, the institute has all of the required approvals. This includes Qatar University, University of Doha for Science and Technology HBK or any such universities in Qatar and they can collaborate with an international partner. This can also be any research institutes operating in Qatar,” he pointed out.

Habayeb noted that the role of QRDI is to connect the academic community in Qatar with the academic and research community in other countries. As for the current collaboration with the Thai Embassy in Qatar he said that there are plans on further engagements with the Thai Embassy with their support to host further delegations and also to potentially build research partnerships with Thai universities.

Thai Embassy had presented three innovative ideas to transform waste materials to value added products at a special event attended by QRDI officials and academics from various institutes in Qatar.

“Qatar has its own national priorities, ranging from sustainability, water, agriculture, food security and climate change. Qatar National Research Fund, the research arm of QRDI, has a programme around the national priorities and there are calls that are regularly published to address specific challenges. These are all different specific areas that have been co-designed with the local ministries in Qatar to address specific problems,” added, Habayeb.