Qatar Development Bank (QDB) announced yesterday the names of five teams who won an initiative launched by the bank to develop pioneering ideas to contribute to reducing the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19).
To accomplish this initiative, QDB launched an electronic platform that gives anyone with innovative ideas the opportunity to develop their entrepreneurial ideas that will help in dealing with various problems and challenges posed by the spread of Coronavirus, in partnership with a number of ministries, academia, private sector institutions, and business incubators.
The initiative witnessed a great turnout by citizens and residents, as the number of requests to participate in the national initiative exceeded more than 1,500 applications, the best 68 of which were chosen to go through the final stages that was held via a digital platform for four days.
The initiative was supervised by experts and consultants from the various partner organisations, who provided all types of guidance to develop the ideas of the teams participating in the initiative, so that the best five ideas are finally chosen by a specialised committee made up of representatives of the partner agencies.
QDB mentioned that the five winning ideas were chosen with great care in view of the strength and convergence of the levels of all the participants’ ideas, based on the criteria of the possibility of implementation and continuity in the event of converting it to a project based on the ground, and the commercial sustainability of the project, and the extent of the project’s influence in solving the problem that it will work to address, as well as the skills of the work team presenting the idea and its ability to implement the project during all its stages.
The winning ideas were: INVENT, a respirator with advanced systems and modular designs, and WASLA, an integrated program that uses artificial intelligence to analyse and address the risks facing supply chains, then BIZLEASE, a digital platform that connects supply and demand to the workforce, and ROBOTICS, an independent robot that features self-control for medicine and food delivery inside hospitals, and V-TECH, a silicone frame to ensure medical personnel are comfortable when wearing N-95 masks.
The CEO of Qatar Development Bank Abdulaziz bin Nasser al-Khalifa said this national initiative is part of the bank’s continuous efforts to provide an opportunity for people with innovative ideas to contribute to the overcoming a number of challenges presented by the current circumstance.
He added that the initiative witnessed a great response from the various sections of society, as all the ideas entered into the competition were innovative, which indicates a great eagerness on the part of citizens and residents to be effective in limiting the impact of the pandemic on the various spheres of life and works.