A NEW BALL GAME FOR ISDB

Bank has initiated a RM2 billion fund to help innovators create sustainable cities

OF the world’s 7.2 billion people, over 880 million — roughly one in eight — live in slums. And roughly 90 per cent of urban residents are breathing unsafe air — a threat to health that must be addressed with urgency.

These are among the many symptoms of the global phenomenon of rapid urbanisation. By 2030, over 60 per cent of the global population will be living in cities. Ways to deal with this profound shift in the world were on the agenda of The Transformers Summit, held on Dec 12 at Cambridge University under the auspices of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB).

The event represents the only conference at which a powerful coalition of entrepreneurs, innovators and global leaders connect to discuss the role of science, innovation and technology (STI) in achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG11), namely making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

It is a new ball game for the 45year-old IsDB, one of the world’s largest multilateral banks, which previously focused on infrastructure development in the 57-member countries which make up onefifth of the world’s population. Creating sustainable cities and human settlements is IsDB’s new development model for a fast changing world. This is also one of the expressed missions of the current president of IsDB, Dr Bandar M.H. Hajjar, who assumed office in 2016. According to Hajjar, with the global population continuing to expand our cities so rapidly, investing in STI is key to meeting the growing demand for housing, energy, clean water, food, transportation infrastructure, and societal services.

The president is ably supported by chief scientific adviser Dr Hayat Sindi, a Saudi Arabian medical scientist whose latest honour was her inclusion in the BBC’s list of the world’s 100 inspiring and influential women for 2018. She is also a Unesco goodwill ambassador for science, and founder of the i2 Institute for imagination and ingenuity. Dr Hayat is convinced that “real financial support in the science and technology sectors is needed in order to drive inclusive and sustainable development”.

This inaugural summit reviewed successful initiatives, policies and innovative solutions in line with SDG11, sharing new ideas and solutions from all parts of the world.

Some of the world’s most exciting innovators became the inaugural recipients of the IsDB’s new RM2 billion “Transform Fund”, launched by Hajjar earlier this year. The Transform Fund provides money for start-ups and SMEs to develop their ideas, to facilitate the commercialisation of technology, and to promote joint activity among member countries, researchers and entrepreneurs.

Innovators, scientists, SMEs private companies, NGOs, governments and academic institutions were invited to apply for funding under these four categories:

PROOF of concept— initial funding for scientists and innovators to develop an idea into a pilot project, development solution or a business proposal;

START-UP — support for a successfully piloted project which involves innovative technologies and need funding to replicate or scale up;

COMMERCIALISATION — support for a successfully scaled-up, innovative project with funding for commercialisation; and,

CAPACITY building — support for governments of member countries to develop technical and functional science, technology and innovation capacity to address major development challenges.

In Cambridge, 32 winners — chosen from 4,300 applications worldwide — were announced. They were selected in a transparent, rigorous and robust screening undertaken by 40 experts specialising in areas of relevance to the SDGs, with final validation by the IsDB’s 10-member Scientific Advisory Board.

Three successful projects hailed from Malaysia. The first one is led by Dr Abdullah Al-Mamun from the International Islamic University of Malaysia. The idea is to produce a safe, environmentally friendly and efficient treatment of water and draws on the discovery of unique properties of a local fungus. Development of such a product will help developing nations move forward in the field of green technology while meeting the goal of “safe and clean water”.

The second project, led by Dr Rasina Rasid from Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, involves development of a “SmartAquaDetector” to count and separate male and female prawns. A recent study in India showed that the monosex culture of giant freshwater prawn could increase revenue by 63 per cent when compared to mixed cultivation. Rasina’s device could be transformative for the prawn farming industry in developing countries.

The third project is an innovative way of planting rice using the “Single Seedling Nursery Tray”, whereby a sliding base attached to the tray safely transfers and releases eight to 10-day seedlings. This System of Rice Intensification is being developed by Faiz Kharim, a young researcher and co-founder of a start-up company based at Universiti Putra Malaysia.

The three successful projects from Malaysia can also be seen as a strong endorsement at a global level of the relevance of research coming from our public universities, a point to be noted by our policymakers involved in allocating funds for our young researchers and budding entrepreneurs.