Today's Edition
SARA ALZAABI (DUBAI)
Made-in-UAE innovations are moving from the lab to the real world. Entities such as Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council and Presight are among those playing a central role in bringing cutting-edge ideas to life.
The ATRC ecosystem is designed to turn advanced research into deployable products and services, said El Mehdi Abdat, Senior Venture Architect and Acting Chief-of-Staff at VentureOne, the council’s commercialisation arm.
At this year’s GITEX Global, VentureOne highlighted some of these homegrown solutions that are creating an impact on various sectors, from environment to mobility. Every startup under VentureOne’s wing is built with the end-user in mind, Abdat said.
Nabat, for example, addresses the urgent need for scalable, data-driven climate tech solutions. Its autonomous seeding drones are designed to support ecosystem restoration.
Researcher Shamma Al Muharrami said that in partnership with Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi, Nabat has already helped distribute seeds to more than 500 hectares of land.
“The process goes through three phases: mapping the area, releasing the seeds with the drone, and monitoring the growth,” Al Muharrami said.
QuantumGate, also powered by VentureOne, helps organisations prepare for the quantum era.
“Every solution is developed in collaboration with the end-user to ensure it meets real operational requirements,” Abdat said.
Presight, part of the G42 group, also takes pride in its made-in-UAE solutions — which are “home-coded, home-engineered, taking the best global ideas and making them better”, said Martin Yates, Senior Government Technology Advisor.
Its team has been combining IoT, AI, and UAE-engineered data management to power smarter cities, Yates said.
“We are showcasing a wave of innovations, led by our Intelli smart-city platform-built in the UAE and in high demand globally.”
“We have added new policing, traffic, and forensics platforms this year, and demand across these areas is surging,” he added.
Yates and Abdat agree that the next wave of innovation will be defined by the convergence of advanced technologies — from AI and robotics to quantum computing and cryptography. As these breakthroughs move from research to real-world application, they are expected to reshape smart cities, homes, and global industries.
“Over the next two to three years, expect practical robotic services and humanoid systems in smart cities and homes. Quantum computing is coming; it could break today’s encryption at scale, so governments and enterprises need to prepare now,” Yates said.
