Omar Ali Al-Ansari, Secretary General, Qatar Research Development and Innovation (QRDI) Council • Interview
COVID-19 has reaffirmed the importance of research and innovation to Qatar and reenergized the mission of the QRDI Council.
What were the main highlights for QRDI in 2020?
Between late 2019 and early 2020, we finalized the QRDI 2030 strategy, which came after a great deal of engagement with stakeholders, academia, industry leaders, and the government. This is a 10-year strategy in line with Qatar National Vision 2030, and we see it as a transformative agenda that will have a positive impact on Qatar’s economy in Qatar and our ability to address national challenges over the next decade. During this period, the strategy was endorsed by the QRDI Council and reviewed by the highest levels of government. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed us to see first-hand how our lives and economy can be affected by unexpected challenges, and the critical role research and innovation has to play in both the response and recovery to such challenges. This has energized us even more and reaffirmed the importance of this strategy to Qatar.
What is your partnership strategy, and how does QRDI articulate the ecosystem for innovation in the country?
We have many of the components of a vibrant innovation ecosystem in Qatar—large state enterprises, scientific research institutes, universities, SMEs, government agencies. However, to have a meaningful and truly national impact, these pieces have to come together in a new dynamic that is characterized by three elements: government agencies and large state enterprises acting as innovation platforms and test beds for new technologies; innovation-driven businesses such as SMEs, start-ups, or multinational companies; and talent, services, and infrastructure made available by excellence and relevance in our universities and research institutes. For this dynamic to occur, we have to build new capabilities, remove longstanding obstacles, and create new incentives for new collaborations between different entities. This is where the QRDI Council plays a critical role, enabling this process to happen by creating partnerships between different actors, and supporting the development of Qatar’s national RDI ecosystem.
How does QRDI contribute to the fulfilment of Qatar National Vision 2030?
One of the important elements of Qatar National Vision 2030 is that it called for Qatar to progress toward building a sustainable, diversified, knowledge-based economy. It outlines how this goal can be achieved in several ways, including enabling and expanding the private sector and leveraging innovation, entrepreneurship, our educational infrastructure, talent, and our existing competitive advantages. Leveraging our competitive advantages is exactly what we need to focus on. When we study the journey of many other countries and advanced economies, those that were successful in building an innovation ecosystem did so because they leveraged their advantages. There are many examples of this globally, but Norway and Singapore especially come to mind. Norway’s petroleum industry contributes significantly to the country’s GDP, but it is strategically diversifying and using technology to build a bridge from oil and gas to other connected industries. The lesson is that innovation ecosystems are not built in a vacuum, but on a nation’s strengths, and that technology allows the transition to other ‘adjacent’ industries. Qatar has many competitive advantages that can be leveraged for expansion into adjacent industries; the primary example is Qatar’s investments to build one of the largest and most sophisticated integrated LNG supply chains in the world. Others include Qatar’s investments in logistics and transport infrastructure through Qatar Airways, Qatar Rail, Milaha, Qatar Port, and Doha Port; in telecoms with Ooredoo and Vodafone; in media, such as with Al Jazeera and beIN Sports; as well as in its state-of-the-art free zones. All these investments now represent ‘platforms’ for new technologies to be tested and deployed, in a small geographical space that can open up huge opportunities for synergy. In this pathway, the entire nation essentially becomes a platform for new innovation-driven businesses to test new-to-market technologies and create new solutions. Qatar has everything it takes to build an innovation-based economy and fulfill its vision of building a knowledge-based economy in the next 10 years.