Oman's Industrial Innovation Forum calls for focus academic sector

Muscat: Focus on the academic sector was one of the recommendations of the Industrial Innovation Forum which concluded on Tuesday.
Organised by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and attended by experts and academics from within and outside the Sultanate, the forum issued many recommendations that serve the industrial sector and help in the development of industry in the Sultanate.
The recommendations covered several sectors, top of these is the academic sector. The participants recommended that the academic sector should restructure its policies to facilitate cooperation with the industrial sector by achieving a balance between teaching, research and solving problems in the industry.
The forum also recommended a linkage between student projects and the difficulties of the industry. It also recommended the development of an approval point system for the students who submit industrial projects and the inclusion of those projects in the curriculum, in addition to providing vocational training programmes to develop skills and raise competencies.
The participants stressed the need that the Research Council should continue its encouragement of research projects, in collaboration with the industrial sector, the introduction of multi-disciplinary programmes in science, commerce, business and humanities to harness traditional knowledge in the Sultanate in order to find modern innovative solutions that are globally important.
In the government sector, the participants also recommended to open communication channels between the academic and industrial sectors through the establishment of an appropriate platform, supporting the funding of research, development and innovation, adoption of standards for innovation, the development and approval of policies for industrial innovation, supporting initiatives of the Industrial Innovation Centre and the Advanced Industrial Research Centre sponsored by Tanfeedh.