QF programme highlights entities fostering development

The second day of the Empowering Innovation programme by the Qatar Foundation Research, Development and Innovation (QF RDI) division’s Industry Development and Knowledge Transfer (IDKT), yesterday discussed the key roles, played by various entities, to foster Qatar’s initiatives for comprehensive development.
A panel discussion on The Qatari Innovation Ecosystem – Challenges and Opportunities was attended by Amna al-Kuwari, the director of Intellectual Property Protection at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoTC), Qatar Business Incubation Centre general manager Hamad al-Qahtani, Qatar University (QU)’s manager of Innovation and Intellectual Property Dr Hareb al-Jabri, Qatar Research Development and Innovation Council secretary-general Engineer Omar al-Ansari, intellectual property and entrepreneurial policy expert Wesley Blakeslee, Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) executive director Dr Abdul Sattar al-Taie, Qatar Science and Technology Park innovation director Hayfa al-Abdulla, and Abeer al-Hammadi, the director of Innovation and Economic Development at the QF RDI.
The session was moderated by John McEntire, the director of IDKT at the QF RDI.
While addressing the session, QNRF executive director Dr al-Taie said that the QNRF is actively extending support to research projects in order to promote the development of the country.
“We have supported 4,000 projects through various funding initiatives,” he said.
Al-Taie explained that the fund helps more than 10,000 school students, 4,000 undergraduates, and 1,200 post-graduate fellows, while 10,000 research papers have been published with the financial support.
Al-Ansari stressed the need to focus on creating an environment that nurtures creativity in order to achieve the objectives of Qatar National Vision 2030.
“We should have an ecosystem that allows entrepreneurs to practice creativity,” he said. “This environment should help entrepreneurs feel comfortable, and their creativity will be appreciated and collaborations can happen with various entities.”