المملكة: "KAUST" Hosting the German Federal Minister for Economy and Energy at the Saudi-German Innovation Summit

In the presence of His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Minister of Energy and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST, the university hosted the Saudi-German Innovation Summit, during the official visit to the Kingdom made by the Federal Minister of Economics and Energy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Ms. Katharina Reiche. The summit was hosted by the President of KAUSTProfessor Edward Byrne, with the participation of senior government officials, leaders from the industrial sector, representatives of startup ecosystems, and research institutions, to discuss ways to accelerate innovation and enhance the resilience of the economy through international cooperation.

This visit confirms the role of KAUSTas a research institution that leads work at the intersection of science, innovation, and entrepreneurship. The discussions focused on how innovation based on scientific research and startup ecosystems can contribute to accelerating the development of technologies, transforming them into commercial applications, and enhancing the resilience of the economy, in areas of common strategic interest, including energy, sustainability, and artificial intelligence.

Professor Edward Byrne, President of KAUST, said: "Saudi Arabia and Germany have complementary strengths for the next phase of innovation in the energy and industrial sectors. Germany’s leadership in industrial engineering and expanding the scope of technologies is closely integrated with the Kingdom’s accelerating investment pace in innovation based on scientific research and new pioneering projects. KAUST works at the heart of this intersection, transforming scientific outputs into applicable technologies and startups, and connecting partners capable of transferring promising ideas into real-world systems."

On the sidelines of the summit, KAUST signed a series of memorandums of understanding with a number of leading German entities in the startup ecosystem, namely: BRYCK Startup Alliance, Start2 Group GmbH, and SWX Innovators GmbH. These memorandums aim to establish a framework for close cooperation between the startup ecosystems in the Kingdom and Germany, with a focus on supporting companies in their early stages in their transition from scientific research to commercial launch, facilitating access to markets, and enhancing international cooperation.

Under these partnerships, the parties will work to connect startup companies and innovation networks in the two countries, by organizing joint events and exchange programs, and providing access to expertise in the areas of systems and organization, technology development, and integration paths. With the industrial sector.

These ongoing partnerships aim to enable companies in their early stages to test and develop technologies and expand their application, by linking German startups with the research environment and innovation networks at KAUST.

The Saudi-German Innovation Summit comes within KAUST’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its international partnerships and host high-level delegations, thus enhancing its position as a national institution for international cooperation in the fields of science, innovation and technology development.