Davos, January 22 (QNA) - The path to strengthening Qatar’s deep tech ecosystem has been placed in focus on the global stage as Qatar Foundation fostered dialogue on advancing innovation and the possibilities that partnerships create at the Annual Meeting 2026 of the World Economic Forum.

Leading figures from Qatar’s technology landscape discussed how breakthrough ideas can be transformed into widespread, real-world impact in a session within the Qatar Pavilion at the Davos forum, where government, business, academic, and civil society leaders from around the world gathered to tackle key global issues and regional issues.

The session co-hosted by Qatar Foundation (QF), Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP), and the Qatar Research, Development and Innovation (QRDI) Council explored deep tech, cutting-edge and often disruptive technologies that have the potential to dramatically transform industries, economies, and societies, and how to create environments where it can be advanced for the benefit of nations and individuals.

Titled 'Re-engineering Ecosystems: Powering the Next Wave of Deep Tech Innovation', the discussion saw Secretary General of the QRDI Council Omar Al Ansari, CEO of Qatar Development Bank Abdulrahman Hesham Al Sowaidi, and President of QSTP (a member of QF) Rama Chakaki share their perspectives on how Qatar is supporting deep tech ventures and how the needs of their founders should be met in the future, the importance of collaboration to enable innovation in Qatar and beyond, and why Qatar should be seen by the world as a destination for deep tech development and scale.

Chakaki also outlined QSTP’s role in enabling deep tech founders to take their innovations from concept to application, and the way in which it draws in global expertise while remaining a hub for strengthening Qatar’s national pool of tech innovation talent. “We’re looking at ourselves as a deep tech impact hub,” she said before adding that “we would love for companies in the region who are looking to scale and create impact to consider being part of our ecosystem – companies that are doing the right work and just need that extra push...Geopolitics are in our favor, because people are reconsidering where they want to be, and we are lucky that Qatar is such a wonderful environment that is attracting incredible talent, and that is adding to our ecosystem."

She highlighted that, within Qatar, there is incredible collaboration across entities under the umbrella of QF, with its relationships both regionally and globally, highlighting that this provides access to datasets and testbeds elsewhere, noting that this was something that tech founders find very interesting.

During the forum, QF also hosted a Qatar Pavilion session titled 'The Power of Partnerships: Collaborations to Deliver Impact', which focused on how strategic collaborations, whether in education, innovation, communications, venture capital, or other areas, can unlock impact, with QF’s unique ecosystem of knowledge illustrated as an example of what can be achieved.

The talk examined the potency of partnership-driven models in converting national priorities into globally relevant outcomes, making a nation more attractive to investors, and accelerating the growth of startups, with Habes Howail, Government Partnerships Manager, QF, highlighting the key elements behind successful, transformative partnerships, from research and AI to education, health, and sports, that have been and are being leveraged to generate impact within QF’s ecosystem.

"At QF, before we identify a partner, we are looking for the purpose," he said before adding "One of the most important things we believe any of our partners must have is a long-term interest – we believe in trust, and that comes before anything else...Secondly, there must be shared responsibility; and the third element is involvement from the very first stage – we believe in co-creation, and this is how our partnership model has been designed and interconnects with our culture."

Meanwhile, fellow speakers Director of Freuds Group Jake Evans, and Partner at Golden Gates Ventures Michael Lints outlined their views on what makes a credible global partnership that can be a lever for growth and attract investors and founders, and how Qatar positions itself as a place where startups can succeed.

"The impact of our co-investments with Qatari entities has been phenomenal," said Lints.

"People now understand that Qatar is a place where you can expand and do research, development, and innovation. There is so much available and so much interconnectivity between entities that even in a fast-paced environment where AI is at the forefront, and everyone is trying to keep up, there are collaborations in Qatar that make a real difference," he added.

Also participating in the Davos gathering was QF-founded QatarDebate, which, with Concordia, co-hosted a discussion on ‘Women at the Forefront; Building Trust and Shaping International Relations Through Dialogue’; while Chakaki was among the expert speakers in a session on building inclusive AI, co-hosted by Invest Qatar and the Financial Times.

And Executive Director of QF’s Earthna Center for a Sustainable Future Dr. Gonzalo Castro de la Mata, gave his perspectives on how localized, trusted, and actionable data can accelerate investment in nature and addressing climate change, in a session at Climate Hub Davos hosted by Clarmondial, a Swiss advisory firm that promotes the sustainable management of natural resources. (QNA)