Global startups draw huge attention

The seventh edition of Annual Research Conference 2018 organised by Qatar Foundation Research and Development that concluded yesterday exhibited a number of global startups attracting the attention of a large number of participants.
The conference provided a window into the disruptive technologies that have the potential to help reshape industries, ways of working, and lives, as 16 global startups exhibited their game-changing ideas and inventions under the ARC’18 Innovation Track.
The ‘International Startups Presentations’ showcased rapidly-emerging technologies in a range of fields, including healthcare, finance, robotics, food and water security, waste management, and renewable energy.
These presentations followed ‘The Future Is Now’, a new event for the Middle East that was presented on the first day of ARC’18 by Qatar Science & Technology Park and Singularity University, and which proved popular with delegates as some of SU’s leading speakers provided expert insights into the technologies of tomorrow.
Outlining the purpose of Viome, one of the participating startups, Dr Stephen Barrie, the company’s chief business development officer, said: “We provide personalised nutritional recommendations based on your unique microbiome, so that you can optimise your health. In doing so, we are trying to help create a world where disease is optional.”
Arvinder Singh Kang, chief technology officer and co-founder of Urban Logiq, a start-up that provides urban intelligence for city-planning, said: “City and provincial governments often have a lot of data contained in silos; we collect it, and then build systems to facilitate better city-planning based around mobility and economic development.”
A series of interactive and in-depth workshops enabled the R&D stakeholders from all sectors in Qatar, and members of the global R&D community, to contribute to launching the process of updating the QNRS, the overarching framework for Qatar’s research objectives. The sessions represented the start of an ongoing dialogue to ensure the nation’s research and innovation efforts align with its development vision, continue to meet the needs of its people and its industries, and have the greatest potential to create economic and social impact through the commercialisation of solutions.
During ARC’18, a total of 270 poster presentations demonstrating the extent and depth of the research activity taking place across Qatar were exhibited under the Researchers Track, which also saw 55 oral presentations of research projects focusing on areas under the four QNRS pillars. All projects were selected from a total of about 1,000 scientific abstracts submitted ahead of ARC’18.