Equate Petrochemical Company will support open innovation by its employees, as well as other individuals and organisations, provided that such initiatives are relevant to its field of business, a senior company official said at a recent event.
Equate president and CEO Mohammad Husain was speaking at the 3rd Research & Innovation (R&I) Summit 2016 organised by the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) to promote excellence in research and development (R&D).
The event was held under the theme ‘Managing R&D during Difficult Times: Creating Global Competitiveness’, and it gathered top executives from petrochemical and chemical companies, as well as government bodies and other entities to discuss various topics regarding R&D and innovation.
Husain, said: “Innovation has become a critical element for sustainability, not merely an expression or set of guidelines.”
“Through innovation, our industry can maintain its global competitiveness especially in terms of contributing to economies around the world. Naturally, innovation relies greatly on progressive R&D that realises milestones for the benefit of humanity through industrial growth. With global spending on petrochemical and chemical R&D reaching nearly $530 million in 2014, progressive open innovation in this field is a strategic objective for our industry,” he said.
In addition to Husain, Equate was represented at the summit by R&D leader Arif Al-Qattan and innovation programme leader Abdulrahman Al-Munyaes.
As part of its participation in the summit, the company sponsored a professor and students from the College of Engineering & Petroleum at Kuwait University to attend the event and interact with other delegates.
The college is represented by faculty member from the Department of Chemical engineering Dr Abdulwahab Al-Musallam, as well as the students, Bader Al-Nashmy, Yousef Al Shamlan and Mohammad Al-Ajmi.
The company’s sponsorship of the professor and the students for this event and other previous GPCA activities is part of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with the college during 2008 for overall partnership and cooperation in industrial and academic fields.
Husain further said: “The summit is truly an opportunity for our stakeholders to encourage open innovation through applying ‘Partners in Success’ by the association, its members, academic bodies, other organisations and individuals from various countries.”
“Addressing innovation’s challenges, fundamental for innovation, as well as emphasising the role of end-to-end collaboration between academic bodies, institutions and companies are emphasised by the summit to facilitate fostering and nurturing innovation-oriented cultures,” he concluded. – TradeArabia News Service