Friday 19 / April / 2024
Muscat: Oman plans to become a global innovation hub for the healthcare sector, according to Dr. Yusuf Al Balushi, head of Technology Transfer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Speaking at the Health Expo 2016, Al Balushi said Oman, with its strategic international partnerships, plans to bring Research and Development (R&D) centres into Oman for the concept and development stages, which will be followed by commercialising these centres.
“Oman has recently signed a partnership with the United States, a groundbreaking synergy that would position Oman as a global innovation hub in the healthcare sector,” he noted.
Most research projects in Oman struggle to find their way out of the labs and Al Balushi stressed there is an urgent need to drive these potential projects, which is only possible through an open innovation system.
“Previously, we had focused a lot on closed innovation systems, a type of research where only local organisations were involved, however, now we plan to focus on an open system, where concepts outside can be bred and commercialised in Oman,” he explained.
Intellectual property
Oman is already moving towards an innovation-based economy, with the development of several high-calibre projects, such as Innovation Park Muscat, Science and Technology Park and the Sultan Qaboos University incubators. These state-of-the-art facilities are in development stages and directly appeal to R&D companies worldwide due to their tax free and subsidised environment, along with providing organisations the luxury of not having to invest into new research labs.
Zahid Al Mandhari, deputy director of the National Oncology Centre said Oman is already on its way to advancements in the development of dedicated research-oriented organisations.
“Projects, such as the University of Oman and Innovation Park, have already started. Companies have already broken ground in the Innovation Park Muscat and the first batch of students from the University of Oman had begun higher education,” he noted.
He also mentioned that even though such facilities are available in a few other countries in the region, Oman’s location, political stability and local workforce are the reasons for Oman to be a preferred location for foreign investment.
Challenges ahead
Even though Oman was ranked eighth on a list that captures the number of research studies carried out by a nation, the studies were ranked 81st on the index, which measures the quality of research, underscoring the grave lack of quality in the research papers.
Dr. Abdullah Al Maniri, head of Research and Study at the Oman Medical Specialty Board, expressed concern over the area of focus of these research papers and the challenges being faced by researchers currently.
“There is currently no area of focus for researchers in Oman as they are driven mainly by materialistic goals, such as money and recognition, instead of the process itself. Lack of strategy, negligible private sector support and fragmentation of institutions and individuals hinders growth of R&D in Oman.
He also highlighted the importance of international collaboration for research projects and local need-driven research projects being the key to success for quality research projects.
