The Qatar Foundation is a non-profit organization made up of more than 50 entities working in education, research, and community development. For over two decades, Qatar Foundation has been driving regional innovation and entrepreneurship, fostering social development and a culture of lifelong learning, and preparing Qatar’s brightest minds to tackle tomorrow’s biggest challenges.
The Qatar Foundation is quite sure their nation’s future lies in unlocking the most precious resource of all—human potential.
Education City, the flagship initiative, is a campus that spans more than 12 square kilometers and hosts branch campuses of some of the world’s leading educational institutions, a homegrown university, and other research, scholastic, and community centers.
What is QF’s approach to education?
The QF team explains it as a multi-generational approach. Their ’cycle of education’ offers learning opportunities from as young as six months all the way up to undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral level.
Commitment to Innovation
QF’s biennial World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) and World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) create a global community of diverse learners and educators and connect them through effective and collaborative experiences.
Qatar Science and Technology Park is building a robust startup ecosystem in Doha with close ties to Silicon Valley. Qatar Foundation has a partnership with leading ecosystem players including US venture firm 500 Startups. For the past two years the partnership has identified promising startups across the MENA region and provided support and mentoring.
Has the blockade impacted the efforts of the Qatar Foundation?
Almost two years on from its imposition, the blockade of Qatar has neither hindered nor deterred QF’s mission. Instead, it has demonstrated how values that are at the core of QF and its stable, diverse environment openness; tolerance and understanding; cultural interaction; and the free exchange of ideas and perspectives are more important and relevant than ever. The blockade has placed QF’s role as a beacon of knowledge and positivity into even sharper focus.
At Qatar Foundation, education comes first. They believe education is a human right that should be guaranteed for students of all nationalities, regardless of surrounding circumstances and political situations. These ideals are precious, particularly at a time of regional turbulence.
The impact of the blockade on their students has been minimal, and where individual students have been affected, QF has made every effort to support them and ensure their education continues uninterrupted. The blockade has had no impact on operations or future plans.
Since the blockade began, QF has opened two new schools, the Qatar National Library, and Sidra Medicine, a pioneering hospital for women and children that is also conducting vital medical research. In 2018 an assistant professor at Weill Cornell working at Sidra Medicine pioneered an innovative diabetes management protocol offering faster and safer access to diabetes treatment.
WISH 2018 the latest biennial gathering of the world’s healthcare experts, brought together by QF initiative the World Innovation Summit for Health attracted nearly 2,200 delegates, making it the most well-attended edition of the summit to date.
The 2019 edition of the Arab Innovation Academy, hosted by QF member Qatar Science & Technology Park, brought together 160 young innovators, 25 speakers, and 37 mentors and investors collectively representing 30 nationalities. Its debut edition, in 2018, drew more than 100 aspiring technology entrepreneurs from Qatar, Algeria, Lebanon, Oman, Tunisia, Morocco, and Jordan.
In 2018, QF hosted approximately 40 major local and international events, collectively attended by more than 55,000 people.
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