Tech entrepreneurs, or ‘techpreneurs’, from all over the world recently joined a week-long startup boot-camp to help transform advanced innovative technologies into ‘Made in Qatar’ technology products.
The exercise was the first phase of Qatar Foundation Research and Development (QF R&D)’s Research-to-Startup (RTS) programme. It was designed to facilitate the creation, acceleration and scaling of startups that leverage technologies developed by the research institutes of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU).
The boot-camp involved a condensed schedule of workshops and activities between seasoned techpreneurs and researchers in an attempt to boost the tech-innovation sector in Qatar.
With the support of professional coaches and mentors, the programme aims to establish teams to create fundable, scalable business plans for potential spun-out tech-startups.
QF supports a broad range of national and global R&D challenges, which contribute to Qatar becoming a competitive and diversified economy, according to Dr Hamad al-Ibrahim, executive vice-president of QF R&D and chairman of the Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP) Board.
“For this to happen, research needs to translate into products and platforms that can impact the way we live and do business,” he said.
“Our Research-to-Startup programme is designed to leverage the technologies generated by QF researchers to provide tech-entrepreneurs with ideas to trigger and fuel the creation of technology startups at QSTP, which is QF R&D’s arm supporting the establishment of a local and regional innovation ecosystem.
“We are excited to work closely with Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) of HBKU on this initiative, and look to expand this effort in the years to come to technologies developed by all research institutes across the country.”
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