In embodiment of the directives of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Ministry is making unremitting efforts to encourage and increase cooperation in the field of research, development, and innovation between the public and accredited private higher education institutions and foreign universities, as the Ministry coordinated to hold a seminar between the universities and scientific institutions in Belarus and the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT), on Monday, March 16th, 2015, at the headquarters of HCT in Abu Dhabi. His Excellency Dr. Saeed Al Hassani, Undersecretary of the Ministry, received the delegation of the Republic of Belarus earlier this month, where the two parties agreed to coordinate the seminar with HCT on the scientific and technological cooperation between the two parties, in the framework of the Minister’s directives to pay attention to international cooperation and activate the agreements, in order to contribute to raising the quality of higher education in the State.
At the beginning of the seminar, Dr. Ahmed Alosi, Research Program Manager at the Scientific Research Department of the Ministry, delivered a speech on behalf of Dr. Husam Sultan Al Ulama, Director of the Scientific Research Department, in which he welcomed the Ambassador of the Republic of Belarus in the UAE, and His Excellency the Vice President of the State Science and Technology Committee in the Republic. He also thanked Dr. Tayeb Kamali, Vice Chancellor of HCT, for organizing the event, and conveyed the greetings of His Excellency Dr. Saeed Hamad Al Hassani for the attendees.
In his speech, Alosi highlighted the importance of the participation of the high-level delegation of the Belarusian Republic that represents scientists, research institutions, universities, and companies in this seminar, in order to share experiences, and learn about the success stories in the field of research and development, the achievements of the Belarusian technological companies, and the research laboratories participating in multiple scientific and technological fields, such as; materials and chemical products, information technology, health care, industry and mining, and food technology. Alosi also called on the students of HCT to seize the opportunity and make use of the presence of the delegation of Belarus, in order to learn about the mechanisms of communication between the industrial companies and research institutions, and their success stories in research and development in the scientific and technological fields, and how to work with the industry sector to market the findings of their research, as the research and development process is not a sequential process and can be achieved in several different ways, which depends in general on the product under development, the provision of infrastructure for scientific and technological research (laboratories), and legislations related to intellectual property and research, in addition to the modernity and type of product, the market needs, the size of economic returns, and other factors.
He also called on the Belarusian participants to make use of the HCT experience in contributing to the growth of economic and social development in the UAE, in line with the UAE Vision 2021. At the end of his speech, Alosi encouraged discussion, exchange of experiences, and the development of future cooperation between institutions, students and researchers.