A Memorandum of Understanding to create and manage the OCCI Award for Innovation was signed yesterday between the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI )and the Research Council.

The Award, established with the support of OCCI aims to integrate the efforts made by the entire government and the private sector to cooperate in finding solutions to various common issues at the local or regional level. 

Representing OCCI, the MoU was signed by Said bin Saleh Al Kiyoumi, OCCI Chairman whilst it was signed from the Council’s side by Dr. Hilal bin Ali Al

Hinai, Secretary General of the Research Council.

Also present in the ceremony were officials from the OCCI and the Council, businessmen and officers concerned with the scientific research and business.

The OCCI Chairman said that the idea of the award stemmed from the Research Council and then adopted by OCCI. The award plays the role of innovation as it is considered a renewal for economic life in general, as well as coping with rapid growth of countries.

The Secretary General of the Research Council said that there are efforts being exerted by several concerned authorities to make the Sultanate a country that support and stimulate innovation.

The MoU text states that the OCCI along with the Research Council will create and manage the award by holding the competition once in every two years to support innovation and to encourage the national skills. The first edition will be launched in April 2017.

The Award is aimed at promoting innovation, spreading its culture in Oman, encourage notable researchers and innovators to exhibit their innovative and research activities in various fields at the local and international levels.

The competition also targets to strengthen cooperation and partnership between the government and the private sector’s establishments, and the academic institution to find out innovative solutions in the most of the scientific and technical fields.

Then to support, safeguard and adopt the innovative ideas to convert them to products that can be marketed and implemented on ground in order to open job opportunities for aspiring young people.

The award also aims at implementing a programme to support a national award that encourages Omani youth to develop their innovative skills and guide them to go ahead with their ideas and develop products that offer innovative solutions though modern ways.

Moreover, to provide financial support for the innovators to develop their ideas in order to transform them to products capable to compete at the local and international markets.

A database of Omani innovators can be created for future reference and to develop their ideas that cope with the local and international requirements. In addition, a working team will be formed, capable to evaluate the scientific innovations and to guide the innovators to expand their ideas.

Through this MoU, OCCI will provide financial support for two years to finance the OCCI Award for Innovation as per the regulating articles and provisions. The amount includes financing 7 main centers covering the entire governorates of Oman. It will also contribute in establishing a general frame for the Award and the expenses of holding annual ceremony for honouring the winners in the Sultanate.

The Research Council will be establishing the Award as per the general frame agreed with the first party. They will be creating and managing the competition at the national level conducting once in two years in seven centers, in coordination with OCCI. The Council has to develop the evaluation criteria for various stages of the Award ensuring the commitment of each center in implementing them. A website will be developed to simplify inserting data for the competitors.

Competition covers the areas of energy, health, food security, environment, manufacturing industries, logistic services, tourism and

ICT. The Award targets students, researchers, employees, businessmen and women and jobseekers among the citizens.

Participating condition in the Award is to be more than 15 years of age, the subject should be innovative scientific, technical and economic ideas. The applicant should be the owner of idea. The project should not be participated in any competitions earlier. The participating idea can be transformed to an implementable and useful product, considering the technical aspect of the idea. If the participation is joint, the members should not exceed 5 participants.

According to the time schedule of the Award, the media advertisement of the competition will begin in April and the registration can be completed through the website: www.trc.gov.om. The submission, screening and evaluation will continue up to next November and the governorate level winners will be declared for final evaluation before declaring the winners of the Sultanate.

Source: Timesofoman