TRC to discuss improving Oman’s innovation ranking

The Research Council (TRC),, in collaboration with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and Cornell University, will organise a high-level panel discussion on leveraging strengths and challenges towards knowledgebased economy under the patronage of Shaikh Al Fadhl bin Mohammed al Harthy, Secretary-general of the Council of Ministers, on Wednesday at the Institute of Oil and Gas (Instog) at the Innovation Park Muscat (IPM).

The panel discussion aims to analyse the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2019 and find out why the Sultanate’s ranking has fallen 11 places reaching the 80th place out of 129 countries on the Index despite its advanced 8 spots in 2018, as compared to its ranking in 2017.

This panel discussion also aims to engage decision makers and the Omani society with the importance of the GII report and discuss how to utilise it to achieve an innovationdriven economy.

In addition, it aims to identify the challenges facing the collection and updating of data on time, maximise the innovation outputs of the Sultanate, and develop a roadmap to achieve the vision and goals of the National Innovation Strategy and its contribution towards achieving Oman Vision 2040.

This discussion, which will give an overview about the GII from a global perspective, is expected to bring recommendations and action plans to help improve the Sultanate’s performance on the GII.

TRC recently called on various government, academic, private and civil society institutions to provide the data of science and technology and research and development from September 1 to October 30 this year.

The data are being collected through focal points at these institutions who have been trained previously on collection, calculation and filling in the forms designed for this purpose. The collected data will be sent later to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.