Doha, Qatar, 8 Feb, 2023: The Qatar Research, Development and Innovation (QRDI) Council’s flagship program, Qatar Open Innovation (QOI), has hosted the US Micro Nano Technologies (MNT) representatives in Doha to discuss the next steps regarding their innovation partnership for Hassad Food, Qatar’s investment arm in Food and Agribusiness sectors, one of which has been developed in collaboration with KAHRAMAA’s Creativity, Innovation and Scientific Research Incubator (CIRI), on the "Atmospheric Water Harvesting in Harsh Environments” challenge.

This step marks the first of a series of future planned visits for the awardees of other Qatar Open Innovation (QOI) challenges since the QOI program's launch in February 2022.

MNT was awarded, in November 2022, Hassad Food’s call for innovation, in collaboration with KAHRAMAA, on the “Atmospheric Water Harvesting in Harsh Environments” challenge. This visit is considered the initial step in the post-awarding process, as the MNT representatives took the chance to conduct several meetings in Doha with the different parties involved in the process and potential partners to be considered as part of the establishment of MNT presence in Doha and commence the work on the previously mentioned challenge.

During their visit, MNT representatives met with several members of The QRDI Council before meeting with the Council’s QOI program team to discuss details of the challenge and review the objectives to be achieved from their visit. The team then moved to a tour of the Texas A&M laboratories, HBKU Research Development Center, and Qatar University, to explore the possibility of leveraging their facilities during the project. An essential part of the trip was visiting several Hassad Food farms and meeting the team with whom MNT will work. The visit helped establish several valuable initial discussions around the inauguration of the work needed around the challenge where the Hassad Food team is looking for MNT solution to help reduce the pressures on local reservoirs and irrigation systems.

Qatar Research, Development and Innovation (QRDI) Council launched Qatar Open Innovation in February 2022 as a first-of-its-kind national program that calls on local and global innovators to create technological innovations in Qatar, addressing the needs of large local enterprises and government agencies.

Open Innovation Qatar is a QRDI Council program that supports industry and government drive innovation in Qatar. It connects innovators from startups, SMEs, and corporates to Opportunity Owners, who can collaborate to pilot innovative solutions to meet their unique needs and further their business goals. To learn more about the program, visit QRDI Council.