Vice President for Research & Graduate Studies at Qatar University (QU), Professor Mariam Al-Maadeed represents QU and participates in the Global Innovation Summit (GIS) 2019, which took place in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhistan. The GIS is organized by the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils (GFCC) annually, of which QU is an active member since 2016.
The GFCC is a network of leaders and organizations from around the world committed to the implementation of competitiveness strategies to drive innovation, productivity, and prosperity for their nations, regions, and cities. The GFCC convenes high-level leaders from business, government, academia, civil society, and global think tanks for vibrant discussions on the state of global competitiveness and ways to enhance innovation capacity worldwide. Qatar University co-leads one of the GFCC initiatives together with University of Zurich on ‘Optimizing Innovation Alliances,’ a joint-policy taskforce and report that outlines best ways and emerging models for fostering innovation in universities in alliance with industry and government.
Qatar University President Dr. Hassan Al-Derham, is currently playing a semi-leadership role with the GFCC University and Research Leadership Forum’s new initiatives on shaping the future of universities in light of the fourth industrial technological revolution.
The summit was held in the presence of Altay Kulginov, Mayor of Nur-Sultan and host of the event, GFCC President Deborah Wince-Smith, GFCC Chairman Mr. Charles Holliday Jr. and other distinguished members, partners and sponsors.
On behalf of QU, Prof. Mariam Al-Maadeed presented ‘The Qatar University Case: Development of a National University Transformation Strategy for Impact and Competitiveness.’ She gave a brief about QU and explained the new QU transformational strategy 2018-2022 and explained how it was inspired by Qatar National Vision 2030. In this context, Prof. Mariam highlighted QU’s innovative contributions to Qatar’s mega initiatives such as some of the new technologies that have been deployed in preparing 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar.
Prof. Mariam participated in several sessions including a panel discussion entitled ‘Industries in Transformation — Building New Industries and Boosting Productivity in Today’s Economy,’ and a University and Research Leadership Forum workshop that discussed the future of universities in light of the fourth industrial revolution, called University 4.0.
The University 4.0 is a new GFCC initiative bringing collective efforts from senior university leaders across the globe together with senior research and development, industry, and strategy leaders in order to conceptualize and explore pathways for emergence and new models of universities shaping future industry 4.0, society 4.0, and economy 4.0. Prof. Mariam brought perspectives from Qatar, QU, and the QU transformation strategy on this emerging and critical topic for universities and higher education transformation.
Furthermore, Prof. Mariam had the opportunity to meet with HE Ambassador of Qatar to Kazakhstan, Ahmed Ali Al-Tamimi, as well as senior officials from different Kazakh universities, in order to initiate potential collaborations between them and QU.