Muscat – The winners of the Falling Walls Lab Oman 2022 competition were announced in an award ceremony held under the patronage of H E Dr Saif bin Abdullah al Haddabi, Undersecretary for Research and Innovation in the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MoHERI), on Monday at Innovation Park Muscat.

The competition, organised by MoHERI in collaboration with the Falling Walls Foundation in Germany, saw 20 finalists fighting to get the top three honours.

The competition attracted 51 projects in all, from which 20 were shortlisted. The selected 20 participants then presented their research projects and business models, in a three-minute talk each in front of a high-level jury that comprised experts from academic fields and research institutions, apart from some prominent businesspersons.

‘Breaking the Wall of Unsustainable Wastewater Quality Monitor’ by Maira Ahmed al Qaidi was adjudged the best entry, followed by Dr Faisal Rashid al Marzuqi’s project ‘Breaking the Wall of Sea Water to Drinking Water’ in the second place. Emad Abdullah Alobiadoon won the third prize for his project ‘Breaking the Wall of MOFs (Metal-organic frameworks ) for Climate Change’.

Maira will represent the sultanate in the global Falling Walls Lab Finale to be held on November 7 in Berlin, Germany and attend the Falling Walls Science Summit to be held from November 7-9 again in Berlin.

During the award ceremony, H E Dr Haddabi said, “Innovation is the key to transform Oman to a knowledge-based economy. The Falling Walls Lab competition is a platform that can enhance and promote innovations among Omani students, entrepreneurs, early-career researchers and academics.”

The Falling Walls Lab competition aims at boosting innovative ideas and business models among young researchers and entrepreneurs across different fields.

The competition provides a platform to up-and-coming researchers to meet up with some of the best accomplished scholars, thus, offering a wonderful opportunity for emerging researchers and entrepreneurs from varying disciplines to expand their horizon and spike their interest in the research field even further through the Falling Walls Lab competition.