His Excellency the University President sponsors the Innovation Exhibition and honors the winners of the “Innovation Incubator” initiative

His Excellency Professor Dr. Abdul Rahman bin Hamad Al-Daoud, President of the University, sponsored the “Innovation Exhibition”, which is held by the University’s Center for Innovation and Intellectual Property, with the participation of 30 displays of innovations and inventions incubated by the University, yesterday, Wednesday, February 14, 2024 AD, in the presence of His Excellency the representatives and members of the University Council and its employees, in the lobby. The president of the university city.

His Excellency honored the winners of the Center’s “Innovation Incubator” initiative, which aims to spread the spirit of competition and raise the level of projects for male and female undergraduate and postgraduate students, and contribute to transforming them into promising products of economic value to support the innovation and entrepreneurship index in achieving the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

The “Innovation Incubator” initiative includes the “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” tracks, where the incubator’s outputs were received in more than 115 projects and the number of participants exceeded 300 participants and participation in the field of technology, technology, engineering and its applications, medical and health sciences, and environmental and agricultural sciences and their applications.

Innovation and entrepreneurship centers in universities are important in transforming pioneering ideas into promising projects that serve the knowledge economy by embracing and supporting new and innovative ideas, and turning them into realistic projects. They also work to enhance innovation, link ideas with leading companies, and provide an integrated scientific environment to transform innovative ideas into models. And marketable industrial products, in addition to increasing the rate of patents and their protection. From this standpoint, Qassim University established an innovation center concerned with supporting innovators and entrepreneurs from the university’s employees and contributing to generating and exploiting their innovative ideas, developing them and transforming them into realistic products that support the knowledge economy.

For his part, the supervisor of the center, Dr. Abdullah Al-Muhaimid, confirmed that the university aims, by holding this annual exhibition in its third edition, to spread and enhance the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, and to highlight the university’s efforts in supporting this system, noting that the launch of this initiative comes from the university’s belief in the importance of this. Supporting innovation in line with its strategic plan, as the university adopts two main projects to support innovation and entrepreneurship: developing and integrating innovation and invention centers, and nurturing and attracting innovators.

Al-Muhaimid added that the journey of innovation and entrepreneurship at the university can be divided into two parts: its founding phase (2019-2020): during which the name of the center was changed from the Center for Inventions and Research Ideas, a permanent committee specialized in the field of innovation and intellectual property was formed, and intellectual property policies were adopted. From the University Council, and studying the reality of innovation and entrepreneurship at the Saudi University, in addition to joining the national network of intellectual property support centers, and joining the World Intellectual Property Organization.

The second phase is the operational and developmental phase (2021-2023), in which the university’s Intellectual Property Guidebook was launched, the patent registration initiative was launched, the innovation exhibition was held (first and second editions), participation in the University Innovation Challenge (first place), and a mechanism for registration was adopted. Intellectual property at the university, registering the number of patents, joining the growth program in the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property, inaugurating the digital entrepreneurship laboratory (code lab), launching the leadership and innovation initiative, launching the university start-up program in cooperation with Monsha’at, and launching an innovation incubator in its third edition. .

Pointing out that these efforts and the work that took place in the last period were with the direct support of His Excellency the President of the University and the relevant authorities and in cooperation with the success partners, indicating that the most prominent outcomes of this movement were represented in more than 45 partnerships, more than 32 prototypes, and more than 60 A digital program and meeting, more than 5,000 visitor beneficiaries, more than 10 training camps, and 166 technical support.

He also indicated that the number of patents reached: 10 applications filed, and 3 patents granted, while the total support received by startup companies incubated at the university (within 8 months) amounted to 4 million riyals.