Innovative and impactful

“On top of our national priorities is the education sector. It will receive full attention, and it will be provided with the supporting environment, which motivates research and innovation. We will also provide it with all means of empowerment, since it is the base upon which our children will be able to participate in meeting the requirements of the coming phase of development.” • His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik on February 23, 2020 For a nation being innovative and impactful are key to build the foundation for research, which is treated as a major yardstick for quality education and the nation’s strive to enhance its own capabilities. Keeping this in mind, the Sultanate has taken a leap forward to boost its resources and set up a system that strives for establishing an academic society based on innovation and scientific research. His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik’s speech epitomised the national priorities for the education sector. To ensure that education, research and innovation go hand in hand, a major overhaul of the higher education sector was done to clearly prioritise education goals and stop the leakages of research and innovation. The country has always been striving for innovation and research which led to international recognition of researchers from the Sultanate, as many of them got awards, accolades and did real stime contribution to science and technology. The issues like the challenges being faced by the innovators and solutions proposed by the researchers have always been encouraged and to overcome them all sorts of financial, technical and marketing supports are given to them to protect even intellectual property rights of such researchers. There have been models of local digital platforms in order to reach an integrated national platform that would help the Omani innovators transfer their ideas into creative projects that add to the national economy and raise the Sultanate’s position in international innovation indicators. Among the most recent successful research projects was work on COVID-19 in March 2020 that involved 28 research proposals with a total cost of RO 280,000. The researchers are aimed at coming out with innovative solutions to fight viral diseases including coronavirus. The Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation (MoHESRI) is drawn towards a National Strategy for Research and Development 2040 (NSRD 2040) to focus on strategy plans for works on research and innovation in all possible sectors. The NSRD 2040 is aligned with the Oman Vision 2040, which among many other broad goals, is inclined towards building scientific temperament among the students. Besides NSRD, there is a country’s National Innovation Strategy (NIS) that is aimed at guiding the country’s institutions involved in research and innovation to priorities and achieve the goals of Oman Vision 2040.