- His Excellency Eng. Majed Sultan Al-Mismar said: “This agreement is vital to the government and private sectors and the Academia for achieving common national goals that go in line with the country’s ambitions and aspirations towards a future that is focused on the implementation of emerging techniques for sustainability, happiness and luxurious life.”
- Arif Sultan Al Hammadi said: “The funding agreement strongly illustrates our close partnerships with government organizations and renowned industry brands to seek new technologies and solutions.”
The Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) and Khalifa University of Science and Technology have signed an agreement to fund the Emirates ICT Innovation Center (EBTIC).
The agreement was signed by His Excellency Eng. Majed Sultan Al-Mismar, Director General of TDRA, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of ICT Fund, and Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University.
EBTIC was founded by Khalifa University, Etisalat, and BT in 2009 as the first UAE-based ICT research and innovation center. The award by the TDRA follows an earlier grant awarded in 2014 to support EBTIC’s transformation to a national industry-academia-government research center focused on developing home-grown and globally-competitive technologies and Emirati talent in the vital ICT sector.
On this occasion, H.E. Eng. Majed Sultan Al Mesmar said: “In today’s world of rapid changes and developments, we are in urgent need of paying attention to research, development, capacity building, and enhancement of skills. Based on our experience full of achievements in the UAE, we realize the importance of cooperation among different sectors for the general benefit of society.”
He added: “This agreement greatly embodies the partnership among the government, the private sector, and the academic sector to achieve common national objectives in line with the UAE’s aspirations to apply trending technologies to achieve sustainability, happiness, and wellbeing. Within this context, we in TDRA will not save any effort to support development, future foresight, and enhancement of skills required for the age of the 4th Industrial Revolution. This is based on our role to enable digital transformation within society.
Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi said: “The funding agreement strongly illustrates our close partnerships with government organizations and renowned industry brands to seek new technologies and solutions. EBTIC is already in a commendable position because of its successful track record in obtaining new innovations and generating IPs over the years, and we believe this funding agreement will help EBTIC reach new milestones, while contributing to human capital development in the UAE, as well as regionally and internationally.”
According to the agreement, EBTIC will lead a national research and innovation program focusing on areas including healthcare, education, communications, information technology, IoT, and data science. It will seek innovative solutions that can be exploited commercially in communications and information technology (ICT), while entering into partnerships with other renowned academic institutions to promote research and scientific excellence.
EBTIC will also work with industry to ensure that research and innovations can be leveraged to tackle business and societal challenges and deliver benefits at the national level. Additionally, it will work towards submitting patents, publishing scientific papers and exploiting intellectual property rights in the ICT sector. Moreover, the Center will contribute to enhancing the country’s international standing and position in the networked readiness index. It will also contribute to developing national skills and talents and to the dissemination of trained talents in various ICT areas.
At the same time, EBTIC will ensure human capital development, rate of Emiratization, training of public and private sector employees through training courses and assignments, while also training university students through summer internships and graduation projects. In addition, it will organize knowledge-sharing lectures, presentations, and workshops, and submit relevant research projects in the ICT sector.
In order to further strengthen the ICT sector, EBTIC will take up a number of research projects in the ICT sector for the UAE Government, for Khalifa University, and its industrial partners. It will also present research papers at conferences, publish in scientific journals, and issue white papers, in addition to generating new IPs.
Clarence Michael
English Editor Specialist
23 November 2021
