Qatar Innovation Community and innovation hub
Initiative description: Using the QIC and its Innovation Hub to enable collaboration between national and international organisations to identify innovative local sourcing solutions for products and services required for the preparation and staging of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™.
The Qatar Innovation Community (QIC) was launched in 2017 by the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Qatar Science & Technology Park and 16 other national stakeholders. The aim of the QIC was to accelerate innovation across Qatar and create challenge-based solutions for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ and beyond. The Innovation Hub was designed to strengthen the cooperation between national and international stakeholders and identify innovative local sourcing solutions for products and services required for the preparation and staging of the tournament.
Goals of the QIC
Through its various innovation programmes and initiatives, the QIC supported and empowered Qatar's innovation capability and knowledge capital. In addition, it helped to address national priorities and enhance Qatar's image and global competitiveness. This was achieved through four strategic goals:
Contribute to Qatar's socioeconomic development plans through the identification and commercialisation of new businesses.
Enhance the Qatari brand through innovative solutions in key sectors, including sport and event management industries.
Establish effective enabling mechanisms to support innovation across Qatar.
Establish an effective stakeholder collaboration framework to enhance Qatar's innovation ecosystem.
Key activities and achievements
The Innovation Hub was an ideation and innovation management platform where ideas, concepts and business cases were created and evaluated in a centralised and collaborative manner before being handed over to the relevant stakeholders for implementation. One of the key achievements of the Innovation Hub was collaboration between stakeholders to create different digital mobile application concepts. These concepts ultimately contributed towards the development of the Hayya (Fan ID) mobile app which was an essential part of the fan experience, acting as an entry permit to Qatar, providing access to the stadiums, facilitating accommodation and free access to public transport, and also served as an overall guide to traveling around Qatar during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™.
Challenge 22 was an SC flagship innovation programme which invited local and regional entrepreneurs and innovators to provide solutions that could support Qatar’s hosting of the FIFA World Cup 2022™. Challenge 22 attracted more than 1,400 applications from Qatar and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, awarding nearly USD 2 million in grant funding to 13 selected start-ups. Six solutions were commercialised through this programme, bringing new products to the market. To find out more about this initiative, please refer to the Challenge 22 web page of this report.
The QIC also organised several workshops, bringing together experts, local government agencies, and other stakeholders to explore innovative solutions and opportunities for Qatar. Topics discussed during these workshops included: the customer journey, transport innovation, digital culture and heritage, artificial intelligence applications in mega events, and smart city innovations.
Through these sessions, many innovative concepts were brought to fruition which not only contributed to the successful delivery of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, but simultaneously catalysed the development/ implementation of various national infrastructure and service initiatives within Qatar.
For example, in 2019, during an event held by QIC with participants from 37 local and international companies, sustainable temporary power solutions for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ were explored. As a result, an innovative temporary power solution was developed for the tournament, which lead to major energy savings and the avoidance of carbon emissions. For more information please see the low-emission temporary power solutions web page of this report.
In another example, the SC explored new applications of artificial intelligence, in combination with transport operational data and national systems integration, to optimise transport operational intelligence for the Tournament Transport Coordination Centre. This resulted in the development of a centralised AI and data management platform hosted in and powered by Tasmu, Qatar’s smart national program. This platform helped transport operators to share a Common Operating Picture for all key transport and last mile operations across different command and control centres, as well as optimizing the decision-making process through augmented intelligence within the National Command Centre.
Research facility at Al Thumama Showcase Stadium
In a collaboration between the SC, Qatar Science & Technology Park, and Gulf Organisation for Research & Development (GORD) Institute, a state-of-the-art research facility at Al Thumama Showcase Stadium was established in October 2020. The purpose of the facility is to develop new technologies in fields of eco-materials, energy efficiency, HVAC solutions, renewable energy, and carbon & climate change – all targeted at reducing the carbon footprint of stadiums and linked facilities.
For more information on some of the innovative solutions being explored and developed through this facility, please see the enabling year-round use of stadiums web page of this report.