Smooth Adjustment to University Environment
Panorama
Ginger Extract Attenuates Hyperglycemia and Oxidative Stress
Mind Over Matter
Conference Deliberates Relationship of Visual Arts and Culture
News Update
Towards
Quality
Research
Department of Public
Relations and Information
Sultan Qaboos University
Issue 337
View Point
Energy, Water Solutions
Humanity is reliant upon the physical resources and natural systems of the
Earth for the provision of food, energy, and water. It is becoming imperative
that we determine how society can best integrate across the natural and built
environments to provide for a growing demand for food, water and energy
while maintaining appropriate ecosystem services. Factors contributing to
stresses in the food, energy, and water systems include increasing regional and
social pressures and governance issues as result of land use change, climate variability, and heterogeneous resource distribution. These interconnections and
interdependencies associated with the food, energy and water nexus create research grand challenges in understanding how the complex, coupled processes
of society and the environment function now, and in the future.
Mohamed Salem Al Ghailani
Editorial Supervision
Santhosh Muthalath
Senior Editor
Sara Al Gheilani
Nasebah Al Muharrami
Translation
Ahlam Al Wahaibi
Design & Layout
Photography Dept., CET
Photography
Salim Al Sudairi
Circulation
SQU-info
There is a critical need for research that enables new means of adapting to future challenges. The food, energy and water systems must be defined broadly,
incorporating physical processes such as built infrastructure and new technologies for more efficient resource utilization, natural processes such as biogeochemical and hydrologic cycles, biological processes such as agroecosystem
structure and productivity, social or behavioural processes such as decisionmaking and governance, and cyber elements. Investigations of these complex
systems may produce discoveries that cannot emerge from research on food or
energy or water systems alone. It is the synergy among these components in
the context of sustainability that will open innovative science and engineering
pathways to produce new knowledge and novel technologies to solve the challenges of scarcity and variability.
The International Cooperation Office at SQU, in association with the British
Council, recently organized as symposium on “Water and Energy Research”
in order to promote links between scientists from SQU and various universities in UK to carry out joint innovative research in water and energy fields. It
is remarkable that the symposium brought together researchers specialised in
energy and water fields from SQU and seven UK universities who discussed
research ideas to open up new paths in water and energy research. There is increased need for innovations in energy research for the oil producing countries.
The drop in oil price is a concern for the countries in this region. It is imperative
to develop more innovative technologies to conserve energy and tap alternative
energy sources. For arid regions, water is a crucial topic and conservation and
sustainable use of water should receive enough attention.
@SQU-info
90199997
Horizon invites contributions from SQU members of staff and faculty. Contributions in the form of
articles, news, travelogues, stories of unique and interesting experiences, encounters, etc., are welcome. Contributions may be edited for the sake of clarity and length. Please send your contributions
to horizon@squ.edu.om preferably, as MSWord attachments. Authors will be suitably credited.
The views and opinions expressed in the articles published in this newsletter are those of the authors
and are not to be construed as the official views of the publication. Horizon is published three times a
month by the Department of Public Relations and Information, Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 50,
P.C. 123, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.
Phone: +968 2414 1045
E-mail: horizon@squ.edu.om
10 April 2016
P2
Fax: +968 2441 3391
Website: www.squ.edu.om
News Update
Conference Deliberates Link
between Arts and Culture
The opening of the Second International Conference of the Omani Visual Art
Research Group (OVARG) organized in Association with the Cultural Club
was held at the Cultural Centre under the patronage of H.E. Dr. Ali bin Saud
Al Bimani, the Vice Chancellor. This conference was part of a joint initiative
by the OVARG in the Arts Education Department at Sultan Qaboos University and the Cultural Club, as part of strengthening cultural, artistic and
academic ties. The theme of the conference was “Visual Arts and Culture”.
In his welcome address at the opening ceremony, Dr. Wissem Abdelmoula,
Chair of the conference organizing committee, said that since ancient times,
culture has been for the artist both a medium, a pool, a space, a reference,
and even a times his most important inspiration. “As a subject of artistic
and scientific thinking, culture was also an aesthetic reference, which, over
the ages, allowed the artist to position himself and his work. We thought it
was necessary to initiate a comprehensive and multidisciplinary reflection
that engages artists, theorists and art critics, sociologists, philosophers, historians, even archaeologists to study this great question of visual arts and
culture and attempt to bring about our modest contribution to the understanding of a problem which has become particularly acute”, he said.
Dr. Fakhriya Khalfan Al Yahyai, Head of the Department of Art Education
at SQU and Head of OVARG, said that the group continues supervising and
documenting to serve the arts, and activating communication with researchers and artists in the current art issues in order to go deeper into the matters
of human creativity. “After the success of the first international conference
“Contemporary crossroad” held in March 2015, which sought to search in
the problematic of the theory of the contemporary Omani art practice and its
future aspirations in particular, we proceed with perseverance in the practical and theoretical research of the visual arts in this second conference titled
“The visual arts and culture,” and we meet several parties related to the
visual arts and those associated with cultural aspects”, she said.
H.E. Dr. Ali bin Saud Al Bemani, the
Vice Chancellor of Sultan Qaboos University, received in his office, H.E. Mihail Zhuravkov, the Minister of Education of the Republic of Belarus, and
accompanying delegation. The two
sides discussed on promoting ties between SQU and higher educational institutions in Belarus through exchange
of students, faculty members, and researchers and collaborative research.
The Minister was accompanied by several high level officials from his Ministry and higher educational institutions
in his country. The officials from SQU
and Belarus stressed on activation re-
Economic and Environmental
Sustainability in Focus
The four-day seventh Engineering Students’ Gathering, organized by the
Engineering Society of Sultan Qaboos University, was held recently under the patronage of H.E. Eng. Salim bin Nasser Al Aufi, Undersecretary
at the Ministry of Oil & Gas. H.E. Dr. Ali bin Saud Al Bemani, the Vice
Chancellor of SQU and other officials attended the opening ceremony
of the event. Social, economic and environmental sustainability was the
focus of the gathering held under the theme ‘Zero’. It discussed how engineering could be applied to improve solutions and achieve a better use
of energy resources allowing future generations to meet their own needs.
The theme ‘Zero’ stands for zero harm, zero waste and zero emissions.
At the gathering, the students expressed their ideas through presentation of their projects. Panel discussions, lectures and engineering related
workshops were also held. Around 70 students from local colleges and
universities and GCC and Arabian countries participated in the event
where 45 projects were presented. Deans and faculty members from the
colleges of engineering, architecture, planning, and computer science at
various GCC countries attended the event.
Apart from students from SQU, engineering students from many local
and regional universities brought their projects and actively participated
in the event. The participating local institutions included the universities
of Sohar, Buraimi, Nizwa, and Caledonian College of Engineering, German University of Technology, Waljat College of Applied Sciences, Middle East College and the International College of Engineering & Management. In addition, several universities from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain
and Egypt were also represented. Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Dr.
Abdullah Al Badi, Dean of the College of Engineering, said that the gathering, which has attracted engineering students from the Sultanate and
abroad, seeks to promote innovative skills and creativity of the students
and make them capable to meet the future challenges in engineering.
search ties in various fields of science
and engineering including information
technology, telecommunication and renewable energies. The Belarusian State
University is planning to start a new
centre for Arabic language. The Belarusian officials evinced interest in SQU’s
support in promoting Arabic and Islamic studies in BSU other educational
institutions in the country. SQU has
signed an agreement of scientific and
academic exchange with Belarus State
University. It aims to encourage communication and exchange of visits between academics and students to conduct research and conduct join activities in technical education.
Vice Chancellor Meets
Belarusian Minister
P3
10 April 2016
Insight
Towards Quality Research
By: Ruqaiya Al Mamari
Humanities Research Centre, SQU
It is widely believed that development would not be achieved in any
field unless there is intent on how to improve our lives to the best and
how to solve various issues around us. Such development should, indubitably, build upon fundamental basics of planning, investigating,
testing, measuring, analyzing and then working towards solutions and
recommendations. All sciences including philosophy, humanities, astronomy, literature, biology, chemistry, and medicine have formed their
present construction by investigations and research years and even decades ago, through which man landed on the moon and further beyond
and people could see the light in the dark.
cients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them,
but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what
he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration and not the sayings of human beings whose nature is fraught
with all kinds of imperfection and deficiency. Thus the duty of the man
who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his
goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and, applying
his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every
side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency.
However, development of any discipline has become highly synchronous with quality in each and every field including research. It has
also become the ultimate target for every institution in its social, for instance, pedagogical, and industrial dimension as it is widely concerned
as the sign of success. In this scope, each country is not measured by
the amount of research it publishes but by the quality of these studies.
In this sense, research quality has meant to be associated with different
concerns of objectivity, reliability, free of bias, validity, and credibility
concerning the focus of the study, the method, and the results.
In order for any study to uncover accurate information, the method
of the study should be coherent with the focus or the issue the study
sheds light on. Instruments such as questionnaires, interviews, surveys
and experiments have to be chosen and applied depending on the nature of the issue and what information the study wants to reveal. For
these methods to effectively reflect the desired information, researchers
should select the participants who would help in revealing the intended
information. ‘Selecting’ here means the type of participants; students,
teachers, doctors, patients and so. These methods, as well, when written, should be clear, research scope-covered and appropriate in length,
in which it shouldn’t be long which will cause participants in answering
them boring and which will affect the credibility of the results. Most
importantly, ethical practice in this regard such as treating participants
well and making all efforts to ensure their anonymity and/or the confidentiality of data gathered about them for example, is not only important to achieve valid results but to form a good picture on the effectiveness of the research. If not, that will impact negatively upon the
participants and may cause them psychological, or even physical, harm.
Therefore, treating participants ethically contributes greatly, theoretically and practically, to research and its quality.
For any research to be regarded as a tool of progression in any community, it must address the contemporary concerns and issues of this
community from its multi-dimensions to be solved in all fields. This, for
instance, could be achieved by conducting a variety of studies in each
discipline and have a variety within the same field with providing all
what it needs to vanquish the obstacles that may stand as barriers to
the scientific research. These obstacles include such as funding, the lack
of support from universities or the governmental circles, the absence
of qualified materials needed for the research and so on. Add to that,
for these purposeful studies to be aptly shown on, it is essential to be
carried out by experts who are not only familiar with how to construct
a cohesive, accurate, and coherent research but also with the focused
scope of the research from its all aspects to be formed and reconstructed
holistically with the primary purpose of conducting and publishing research for serving the community and improving it to the best.
In the scope of writing research, it is meant to uncover and reveal the
credibility of the information in which any research should be characterized by objectivity in each of its sections including, most importantly, other people’s writings and perspectives of the same scope. In his
words, Ibn al-Haytham, an Islamic scientist and a researcher in different
fields including optics, astronomy, mathematics, psychology, and philosophy, abridges the characteristics of researchers and the mechanisms
they should follow when conducting a study:
The seeker after truth is not one who studies the writings of the an10 April 2016
P4
In the analysis step, findings should reflect actual and valid results without changing numbers or manipulating opinions for personal purposes
or other tendencies. On the contrary, they should be a mirror of people’s
perceptions of the research community, based on what the conductor
found basically. Finally, for the research to be valued, it should serve
researchers, readers and policy makers a plate of appropriate recommendations, suggestions and solutions to be applied and implemented
easily in the community.
All these techniques, if gathered and employed, when investigating an
issue with purposeful scope, appropriate methods, objective results,
and valid solutions will construct research with quality, with all required information, and which reflects the society as it is and contributes to the improvement of the country in every aspect by working on
the suggested recommendations.
Mind Over Matter
Ginger Extract Attenuates Hyperglycemia
and Oxidative Stress
Type 2 diabetes is a multifactorial disorder in which oxidative stress
synergizes with dietary, environmental and genetic predisposition for the disease pathogenesis. In human cells, the production
of radical reactive species and the antioxidant defense systems are
approximately balanced. When reactive oxygen species combats the
antioxidant defense systems, this situation is called oxidative stress,
examples of reactive oxygen species include charged species such as
superoxide and hydroxyl radicals, and uncharged species such as
hydrogen peroxide, the oxidative damage from these species to biomolecules such as DNA, lipids and protein is involved in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. Ginger is a good a source of antioxidants,
which have been the basis of numerous studies in the last decade
in relation to type 2 diabetes. The cellular antioxidants capacity include enzymatic and non-enzymatic molecules that are located in
the intracellular and extracellular milieu, and they are responsible
for detoxifying or scavenging the free radicals insults generated by
various oxidizing agents.
In this context a research team at the Food Science and Nutrition Department, consisting of Dr. Mostafa Waly, Prof. Nejib Guizani, Mrs.
Sithara Suresh, and Professor Mohammad Shafiur Rahman, initiated
an experimental study that was published recently. This study was
aimed at evaluating the potential antioxidant properties of ginger
against diabetogenic-induced hyperglycemia and oxidative stress
in rats. The results show that the diabetogenic drug, streptozotocin,
acts as oxidizing agent and causes oxidative damage for the pancreas tissue as evidenced by low glutathione, impaired total antioxidant
capacity and release of serum oxidative stress indices (advanced
oxidation protein products, protein carbonyls and nitrates plus nitrites). However this streptozotocin-mediated oxidative stress was
abrogated by ginger-supplementation. The data on the antioxidant
and anti-diabetic properties of ginger-supplementation against the
streptozotocin insult in our study is novel and consistent with the recent research studies that are reported in a rat model, the long-term
ingestion of ginger suppressed the reactive oxygen species-mediated pathogenesis through anti-oxidative effect. These findings indicate that supplementary ginger dietary regimen counter balancing
and scavenging the reactive oxygen species and its related oxidative
damage in pancreas tissue. Our observation opens new avenues in
the primary prevention of type 2 diabetes.
Vitamin C could prevent non-communicable diseases in
young adults
Diets rich in fresh fruits and vegetables are protective against noncommunicable and degenerative diseases. The beneficial effects of
fruits and vegetables are mainly due to vitamin C and other phytochemicals. The steady increase of non-communicable diseases in
Oman is attributed to the changes in the nutritional habits of the
Omani population. In this context, a team of researchers from the
Department of Food Science and Nutrition of the College of Agricultural & Marine Sciences at SQU, consisting of Dr. Mostafa Waly, Dr.
Zahir Al Attabi, and Prof. Nejib Guizani conducted a cross-sectional
study to evaluate the status of vitamin C in relation to oxidative
stress markers among healthy Omani young adults. A cross sectional
survey was conducted in March 2014 to study the vitamin C status
and biochemical determinants of oxidative stress among 200 male
young adults attending Sultan Qaboos University based on a selfadministered questionnaire.
The study has indicated that the mean daily dietary intake for vitamin C among healthy young adults was positively associated
with an increase in plasma vitamin C level and serum antioxidants
parameters. On the contrary, low intake of dietary vitamin C was
negatively associated with serum oxidative stress parameters. The
researchers said that adequate intake of vitamin C acts as a primary prevention intervention for non-communicable diseases among
young adults.
Dr. Mostafa Waly said that including fruits and vegetables as part of
the daily diet might reduce the risk of some non-communicable diseases including cardiovascular diseases and certain types of cancer.
“Evidence suggests that when consumed as part of a healthy diet
low in fat, sugars and salt/sodium, fruits and vegetables may also
help to prevent weight gain and reduce the risk of obesity, an independent risk factor for non-communicable diseases. Fruits and vegetables are rich sources of vitamins and minerals, dietary fibre and
a host of beneficial non-nutrient substances including plant sterols,
flavonoids and other antioxidants and consuming a variety of fruits
and vegetables helps to ensure an adequate intake of many of these
essential nutrients”, he noted.
P5
10 April 2016
News Round Up
Dr. Ali Al-Badi Wins
Research Award
Dr. Ali Al-Badi, an associate professor in the Information Systems (IS)
Department at the College of Economics and Political Science (CEPS),
received the “Excellence in Research
Award” from Clute Institute, Colorado (a USA- based institute) for his
exceptional research efforts.Dr. Ali AlBadi is an active researcher who has
published many excellent research
papers in international conferences
as well as for peer reviewed journals.
In addition to publishing single or coauthored papers, Dr. Ali is also wellknown for his patience and commitment in helping and empowering IS
students in sharpening their research skills.
This award was triggered by the fact that the paper that Dr. Ali co-authored with two of his students (Elham M. Al-Mukhaini and Wafa S.
Al-Qayoudhi) has been downloaded more than any other manuscript
in the Journal of International Education Research (JIER). The paper is
titled: “The Adoption of Social Networking in Education: A Case Study
of the Use of Social Networks by Higher Education Students in Oman”.
This paper also achieved the “Best Paper Award” when it was presented
in the 52nd Clute Institute International Academic Conference, Paris,
France, held from June 9 to 11, 2013, which was then selected to be published in the journal mentioned above. Dr. Ali hopes that this achievement will promote the research activities at the College of Economics
and Political Science (CEPS) and will thus help in enhancing the rank of
Sultan Qaboos University among the world universities.
Academic Bags X Culture
Best Instructor Award
Dr. James Rajasekar, Associate Professor in Management at the College of
Economics & Political Science, Sultan
Qaboos University, has won the Best
Instructor Certificate for his contributions in organizing and managing
the X-Culture Global Collaboration
Project. In this international student
competition project, Dr. Rajasekar
provided students with the theoretical
training and two months of practical
experience when they were working
as members of a Global Virtual Team
and developed a business proposal
for an international company. Dr. James
Rajasekar took part in X-Culture in 2015-2 with a group of his undergraduate students, as a teacher at Sultan Qaboos University. X-Culture
is a large-scale international experiential learning project. About 4,000
students from six continents participate in X-Culture every semester. The
students are placed in global virtual teams, usually of about 7 students,
each coming from a different country. About a dozen multi-national corporations team up with X-Culture and present their challenges. The students, working in global virtual teams during the semester, develop their
solutions to the international business challenges presented by the XCulture’s corporate partners. In doing so, the students experience firsthand the difficulties and learn best practices of international collaboration, as well as train on business plan development skills. A total of 136
instructors and co-instructors teaching at 112 universities in 43 countries
whose students (around 4000) took part in the 2015-2 round of the XCulture competition were considered for the Best Instructor Award.
10 April 2016
P6
SQU Hosts Second MENA
Trade Workshop
The WTO Chair at Sultan Qaboos University hosted the Second MENA
Trade Workshop “Trade, WTO and Food Security” on March 21 and
22. The two-day workshop discussed the linkage between trade, WTO
and food security as well as other trade related and food security issues. An expert from the WTO Secretariat delivered a keynote paper
from the WTO standpoint and Dr.Jane Horrigan, a scholar from the
University of London, who published a book on Arab food sovereignty, delivered a talk during the event. Academicians and practitioners
from the region presented their findings and discussed food security
in light of the challenges presented by limiting natural resources and
international market instability.
The WTO chair at SQU conducts research, curriculum, and outreach
activities, which are relevant to both the Middle East and North African Countries (MENA) and WTO. Commenting on the theme of the
workshop, Dr. Houcine Boughanmi, WTO Chair Professor at SQU,
said that these days food security has become more than ever before
a worldwide concern particularly in the MENA region. “Food security is explicitly mentioned in the preamble of the WTO Agreement
on Agriculture (AoA) as a non-trade concern that should be given
consideration in trade negotiations along with protecting the environment and the possible negative effects of the implementation of the
agreement on the net food-importing developing countries. However
during the last food crises, global food prices spiked in unprecedented
way and world food markets were disrupted in such a way that many
countries, scholars, and development institutions questioned the reliance on trade and world markets to solve developing countries food
security issues. The role of WTO and trade disciplines in the AoA was
considered not flexible enough to allow countries to pursue their national food security policies. New and old paradigms of food security emerged to emphasize in different degrees the complementarity
between trade, international cooperation, and self- reliance for food
production. In this regard, the WTO Chair at SQU hosted a workshop
that addressed these issues.
Dr. Houcine Boughanmi further said that in addition to price variability, climate change is creating new challenges to the future of food
security in the region. “Agriculture in the MENA region is considered
one that will be mostly affected by climate change. Year to year localized production variability is expected to increase and with potentially
negative impacts on the food security of local communities. Trade, as
it connects “the land of the plenty to the land of the few”- thereby increasing food availability- could contribute to food security solutions
but more innovative mitigation and adaptation policies are needed
to attenuate the negative effects of climate change”. In this context,
the workshop sessions discussed the following topics: food security
and the WTO DDA agenda; food security and trade policies; strategic food reserves; supply chain and food import management (wheat
and staple commodities); food security and climate change; managing
food import risks; regional food intra-trade; and global-value chain
and food security.
Panorama
Smooth Adjustment to
University Environment
By: Dr. Victoria Tuzlukova & Daniel Stead
Language Centre, SQU
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in support, guidance, and orientation programs - collectively known as induction - for
teachers during the transition into their first teaching jobs. Induction
is meant to play a vital role in the adjustment of new hires into their
teaching jobs and teaching assignments, and in their professional
performance. Increasingly, educational institutions in the region and
worldwide are adopting comprehensive induction programs aimed at
assisting and guiding new teachers into the profession in the pursuit
of these goals.
Supported by the University’s Internal Grant and launched in January
2015, our study aims at exploring the induction and orientation programs for new language teaching faculty at the higher education institutions in Oman in order to better understand the nature of these programs and their consequences for language education and language
teacher professional development. One of fundamental questions that
that has guided our study is about the solutions offered to smooth new
hires’ adjustment to the university environment. Our study has shown
that, for example, Sultan Qaboos University Language Centre’s solution is to help new teachers cope with the stress of acclimating to a new
culture and climate and become oriented to the work environment
and teaching assignments. As well as that, the focus is on new teachers’ integration into the structure and culture of the university and the
Language Centre, and instilling purpose into their new teaching jobs
by providing custom-tailored induction and orientation programming.
Currently, the Language Centre’s new teacher induction and orientation programming is facilitated by the Induction and Mentoring Program that is incorporated into the existing administrative structure
as an element of the Professional Development and Research Unit
(PDRU). The program members act to centralize and update existing
elements concerning induction and orientation, remove any gaps in
the programming, formalize the process and procedures, guide new
teachers in standards and pedagogy. They also provide emotional and
practical support as teachers adjust to their first year teaching.
The comprehensive induction and orientation programming, modeled
on the best international and local practices, involves three stages: prearrival support, induction and orientation, and first semester mentoring. Mentoring is aimed at helping teachers establish the Language
Centre’s professional standards and shared language; building knowledge and practical skills and developing their own self-image as a professional among others. Following the assumption of regular teaching
duties, the members of the Induction and Mentoring Program assist
new faculty to become fully integrated into the professional environment of the Language Centre by creating networks that involve language program coordinators, experienced faculty who can offer guidance on program matters and policy and answer queries about the curriculum and program objectives. New faculty are also advised through
regular communications about important events such as scheduled
observations, professional development and extracurricular activities,
and the clarification of professional responsibilities and obligations. In
addition, central to the Language Centre’s induction and orientation
programming is being respectful to new teachers, bringing out their
talents and passions for teaching and community service. Moreover, it
has been revealed that collaborating and working together with experienced teachers benefit a lot: most new and experienced teachers have
increased their job satisfaction. To exemplify, many of them report that
they feel re-energized and more focused through their participation in
the program and become more reflective on the resources available at
the Language Centre and their own teaching practice as they articulate
best practices for their new colleagues. Such approach creates communities of teaching and learning which allow for quality teaching and
help develop teachers who teach well and are satisfied with their jobs.
P7
10 April 2016
Straight Talk
Entrepreneurial Motivation and
Awareness Imperative
Constantine Demetriou
Constantine Demetriou is the Director, Commercialization at The
Research Council (TRC). Of late, Demetriou visited SQU to give a
talk on start-up and venture capital landscape in Oman at the “Water
and Energy Research Symposium” organized by the International
Relations Office at SQU in association with the British Council. In
this interview, Demetriou elaborates on TRC’s efforts to promote research and innovation in the country in collaboration with various
government agencies and universities.
Horizon: Could you please introduce yourself with reference to
your academic and professional background?
Demetriou: I did a Master’s degree in International Relations at
Cambridge and later MBA at Cornell. In between the last 2 degrees,
I tried both a consulting and a finance career. In choosing the latter,
I focused on PPP’s and investment banking in the first 10 years of
my career and venture capital/private equity/ restructurings in the
next 10 years. I have faced many challenges in making venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) investments: working with other
investors, dealing with startup founders, growing businesses, restructuring companies, changing management and ensuring an exit
from an investment. The sectors I had to look into varied from oil
andgas to mining to cosmetics to ICT.
Horizon: Could you summarize TRC’s strategies and action plan
to promote innovation and entrepreneurship among the Omani
youth?
Demetriou: TRC has been traditionally active in encouraging research aspirations of Omani researchers and students. TRC has
had research programs focused on PhD researchers and students.
Amongst the most notable from the point of view of encouraging
innovation is the Faculty Mentored Undergraduate Research Award
10 April 2016
Program (FURAP) focused on final year students. Over the last few
years, the TRC, jointly with SQU, has helped establish the Academic
Innovation Assistance Program (AIAP), which has not only organized a number of speakers and workshops, but is providing funding for prototypes. It is also actively involved in awareness building
through innovation competitions. At the same time, TRC launched
the Individual Innovation Competition, focused on social innovation, which provides funding for individuals to build prototypes.
Although not specifically focused on people from academia, the recipients have included people from academia. In school education,
TRC is working with the Ministry of Education to raise awareness of
innovation in Omani schools.TRC is also finishing the first stage of
Innovation Park Muscat (IPM), which will have incubation facilities.
These will be focused on practical help for companies during preincubation and incubation. At the same time, active work is taking
place to attract research-based companies to establish themselves in
the next stages of the IPM. Finally, TRC is working to set up the first
technology focused venture capital fund in Oman, which will start
operation this year.
Horizon: How would you evaluate the status of innovation and
entrepreneurship in Omani youth subsequent to the government’s
efforts in this direction?
Demetriou: Entrepreneurship has not been at the forefront of most
students’ minds- over the past 20 years there have been many excellent opportunities to join the government or large private sector.
Due to the growth of the economy, a good living standard and career progression was often achieved. The slowdown in the economy
is beginning to create a new environment. The government has set
up a number of initiatives that aim to help entrepreneurship. These
include Sharakah, which provides both equity and debt finance for
startup companies, AlRaffd providing debt finance for SME companies. The government has also actively created incubators- some of
a specialist nature (such as SaS focused on ICT) and some like NBC,
of a more general nature. There is also Riyadah with a wide range
of activities in training and active NGO’s such as Injaz Oman.These
measures taken together have helped SME’s to grow. Although not
specifically focused on innovation, innovation-based companies
could apply to them in parallel to other SME’s. The institutions established are but the first step and we hope that once the measures
being discussed as part of the Omani National Innovation Strategy
are implemented, there will be additional steps taken to create an
innovation ecosystem in Oman. Diversification in the economy is
possible if efforts are intensified, despite the low oil price and additional measures adopted to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship.
Horizon: Could you summarize the challenges in promoting entrepreneurship in Oman? How can we overcome these challenges?
Demetriou: The main challenges are motivation and awareness.
Omanis are by nature entrepreneurial, the maritime history of
Oman, its active trading position in the Arabian Peninsula, Africa
and India are all testament to this. With oil, that motivation was
diluted, but if there is anything positive in a low oil price, it is that
it is now clear that non-government and ideally start-up opportunities will become more important. Being aware of the challenges of
setting up a company, what to focus on, how to build up/motivate
a team, how to develop a product, how to analyze a market are all
important elements to consider in starting a business.