Official government website of the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 
His Excellency Prof. Abdulrahman bin Hamad Al-Dawood, President of the University, sponsored the "Innovation Exhibition" held by the University's Innovation and Intellectual Property Center, with the participation of 30 displays of innovations and inventions incubated by the university, yesterday, Wednesday, February 14, 2024, in the presence of His Excellency the Vice Presidents and members of the University Council and its affiliates, in the main lobby of the University City, in the presence of His Excellency the Vice Presidents and members of the University Council.
His Excellency honored the winners of the center's "Innovation Incubator" initiative, which aims to spread the spirit of competition and raise the level of projects for undergraduate and postgraduate students, and contribute to transforming them into promising products with economic value to support the innovation and entrepreneurship index in achieving the Kingdom's Vision 2030.
The "Ibtikar Incubator" initiative includes two tracks, "Innovation and Entrepreneurship," where more than 115 projects were received and the number of participants exceeded 300 in the field of technology, engineering and its applications, medical and health sciences, environmental and agricultural sciences and their applications.
Innovation and entrepreneurship centers at universities are important in transforming pioneering ideas into promising projects that serve the knowledge economy by incubating and supporting new and innovative ideas and transforming them into realistic projects. They also work to promote innovation and link ideas with leading companies, provide an integrated scientific environment to transform innovative ideas into marketable industrial models and products, in addition to increasing the rate of patents and protecting them, and from this perspective, Qassim University has established an innovation center that supports innovators and entrepreneurs from university affiliates and contributes in generating and exploiting their innovative ideas and developing them into realistic projects.
For his part, Dr. Abdullah Al-Muhaimid, Supervisor of the Center, stressed that the university aims to hold this annual exhibition in its third edition to spread and promote the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship and highlight the university's efforts in supporting this system, pointing out that the launch of this initiative comes from the university's belief in the importance of supporting innovation in line with its strategic plan, as the university adopts two main projects to support innovation and entrepreneurship, namely: Developing and integrating innovation and inventions centers, and nurturing and attracting innovators.
Almuhaimeed added that the innovation and entrepreneurship journey at the university can be divided into two parts: The establishment phase (2019-2020): In which the name of the center was amended from the Center for Inventions and Research Ideas, the formation of a permanent committee specialized in the field of innovation and intellectual property, the adoption of intellectual property policies by the University Council, a study of the reality of innovation and entrepreneurship in the Saudi University, joining the National Network of Intellectual Property Support Centers, and joining the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
The second phase is the operational and developmental phase (2021-2023)2023), in which the university launched the Intellectual Property Guidance Manual, launched the patent registration initiative, held the Innovation Exhibition (first and second edition), participated in the University Innovation Challenge (first place), adopted a mechanism for registering intellectual property at the university, registered the number of patents, joined the Growth Program at the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property, launched the Digital Entrepreneurship Lab (Code Lab), launched the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Initiative, launched the University Startups Program in cooperation with Monshaat, and launched the Innovation Incubator in its third edition.
He pointed out that these efforts and the work done in the past period were with the direct support of the UQU President and the relevant authorities and in cooperation with success partners, indicating that the most prominent outcomes of this movement were more than 45 partnerships, more than 32 prototypes, more than 60 digital programs and meetings, more than 5000 visitors, more than 10 training camps, and 166 technical support.
He also indicated that the number of patents reached: 10 applications filed and 3 patents granted, while the total support received by the incubated startups at the university (within 8 months) amounted to 4 million riyals.
