Dr. Bakri bin Maatouq Assas, President of Umm Al-Qura University (UQU), has always supported and guided the idea that scientific research in UQU should serve the national needs, be applied directly on the ground, participate directly in the knowledge economy and take care of coming out with products that can be marketed and transformed into startup companies. Therefore, the Deanship of Scientific Research worked with governmental and private agencies to identify the national needs and ways of cooperation to contribute to finding solutions to national challenges through careful scientific research. This was in order to implement the directions of UQU President, and to seek the domains of research and technical cooperation with the national authorities, to find the outputs of scientific research applications directly on the ground inside, and may be outside, KSA.   

Stemming from this, the first meeting with the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) was held at its headquarters on Thursday, 6^th Safar 1439H to discuss a strategic partnership between JCCI and UQU. During the visit, UQU was represented by a delegation comprising staff members in the Deanship of Scientific Research, headed by Dr. Abdurrahman bin Ghaleb Al-Ahdal. The delegation also witnessed the presence of Dr. Mowaffaq bin Muhammad Uraijah (Dean of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute) as well as some staff members.

Mr. Mazen bin Khaled Katbi, Assistant Secretary General for Business Affairs Sector, welcomed UQU delegation. He also commended such bold step to cooperate with the business community in the Kingdom to achieve national development. It is also worth mentioning that JCCI was represented by a delegation that comprised seven different JCCI sectors. 

In this context, the meeting discussed various areas of cooperation, including optimizing the use of academic and research experiences at UQU in various subjects. Such subjects included creating and nurturing industrial incubators, challenges of small and medium enterprises, achieving a transition to a knowledge economy, technical contribution to procedural solutions, and information security in business environments. Moreover, the subjects also revolved around taking advantage of the problems identified in JCCI to find academic and research solutions, identifying and marketing research opportunities and academic efforts in the business community, and conducting studies of labor market issues that supported business environments and motivated entrepreneurs. It is worth mentioning that this meeting will be followed by other meetings to complete the strategic partnership between the two parties to achieve the national interest, and contribute to achieve the KSA Vision 2030, God willing.

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