The UAE Innovation Award Ceremony will be held on 27th February 2019, to honor the most outstanding applicants

Under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of Dubai Airports, Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline & Group, the UAE Innovation Chapter under Dubai Quality Group announced that the Awarding Ceremony of the 2nd cycle ofUAE Innovation Award will be held on 27thFebruary 2019, at Habtoor Palace, LXR Hotels & Resorts, Dubai. 

Launched in 2016, the award’s core objective it to spread innovation culture throughout UAE private sector, and in turn support the UAE National Innovation Strategy by bringing the private sector in par with the public sector, in achieving the national goal of being one of the most innovative countries in the world.

The UAE Innovation Award assesses companies over 3 major award criteria: Innovation Capabilities, Innovation Drivers and Innovation Results. Once assessed, a comprehensive feedback report will support organizations to identify strengths and performance gaps in innovation, thus framing a complete roadmap for their innovation strategies. The award is evaluated on a point system where organizations are benchmarked on several indexes. Once the scores are aggregated by the assessing team under the close supervision of the award jury, qualifying organizations scoring above 200 points are awarded a star rating. The pinnacle of innovation is awarded to organizations scoring over 700 points with the prestigious and coveted 5-star rating.

The award jury, comprising ofEng. Hassan Omar - Chairman of Dubai Quality Group, Fatma Buti Al Mheiri -Chair of UAE Innovation Chapter, DQG, Dr Kasim Kanakri-Chief Executive Officer, Team Power International & Award Technical Advisor,Ms. Shaikha AlBishri - Director of Business Excellence Department, Dubai Economy, and Mr. Amer Bin Ahmed -DQG Board Member and Managing Director of Knauf LLC Middle East & India, overlooked the assessment results of the participating companies from various industries such as Healthcare, Food & Beverages, Manufacturing, Real Estate & Construction, Banking  & Finance, IT, Transportation, Education, Retail & Consumer  Goods, FMCG etc.

Eng. Hassan Omar, Chairman of Dubai Quality Group,remarked: “For the second year in a row we are honored to conduct the UAE Innovation Award under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, and contribute to achieving UAE’s Vision 2021.” 

“Innovation is imperative to today’s business growth and the award is very much in line with DQG’s revised strategic objectives and vision”, he added.

Fatma Buti Al Mheiri,Chair of the UAE Innovation Chapter, DQGstated “The UAE Innovation Award is aligned with the vision of UAE’s leadership, who has rightly identified innovation to be the way forward to ensure sustainable growth and development.”

“We were keen to provide all the facilities and expertise required to ensure a transparent and fair assessment process. We are pleased to have received an overwhelming response from over 100 companies, including from Construction and Transportation sectors for the first time this year, and are delighted to have noticed that companies have started to align their innovation strategies along the award’s framework, which is a clear indicator of the award’s success and impact.” she added.

Dr. Kasim Kanakri, the Award Technical Advisor and CEO of Team Power Internationalcommented “The UAE Innovation Award is focusing on the private sector and it differs from other awards by its scope and objectives. The award framework and criteria have been designed based on world-class Innovation concepts and best practices, and will be a great tool for companies to assess and raise their innovation maturity.” 

He added “We are also proud to have trained around 200 individuals from different nationalities and industries on the award’s framework to become innovation experts.”  

The Sponsors of the award this year are Dubai Duty Free, Ducab, ENOC, Knauf LLC as Sliver Sponsors and Emirates NBD as Bronze Sponsor, with the support from Dubai Media Incorporated as Strategic Media Partner, Gulf Business Magazine as Official Media Partner and Business Dubai Magazine as Media Partner.