Powering Global Innovation With Stronger R&D Collaboration

In a world where global challenges increasingly affect us all, from climate change and the energy transition to public health and digital inequality, no nation can solve the most pressing issues alone.

Global collaboration has become an imperative to pursue research and innovation, drive solutions, and speed up progress across industries.

The global response to COVID-19 showcased the power of uniting expertise from different regions and fields. Prior to the pandemic, initiatives like the Human Genome Project and the International Space Station also demonstrated that global cooperation can benefit innovation if we focus on building a strong research and development (R&D) community. Such cooperation efforts must now be applied more broadly.

In the UAE, we are committed to engaging with the international academic and scientific community because we strongly believe global collaboration is essential to keeping pace with the rapid development of a wide range of emerging technologies.

Sharing knowledge and infrastructure across borders helps push innovation forward. We believe that research benefits greatly from cultural diversity and the richness of different perspectives. Equally important is encouraging collaboration between different research fields on the national and global levels.

Complex problems often require diverse expertise, and by combining insights from different domains, research teams can tackle challenges from multiple angles, leading to more innovative ideas. This cross-pollination often leads to solutions that might not emerge from a siloed approach.

Global collaboration is central to our work at the Technology Innovation Institute (TII), the global research center dedicated to pushing the frontiers of knowledge which is part of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC).

We have created a vibrant R&D hub by attracting global and local talent who can contribute to Abu Dhabi’s knowledge economy. Our team of hundreds of scientists, researchers and engineers who work in 10 specialized research centers is dedicated to innovation in fields as varied as healthcare, sustainability, aerospace, security and defense, and transportation.

TII is constantly innovative, using artificial intelligence (AI) as a cornerstone of our research. With our Falcon series of large language models (LLMs), we are democratizing AI through open source and open science and we are supporting the customization of our models to address specific industries and sectors.

In our centers, we’re also harnessing the power of AI across a wide spectrum of research, from enhancing cryptographic techniques to advancing autonomous robotics and space exploration. We’re leveraging AI to improve data privacy and security. We’re also using AI to optimize the performance of jet engines and enable predictive maintenance.

Technologies like AI and post-quantum cryptography (PQC) are transformative and hold the potential to revolutionize industries, from healthcare to finance and energy to security. However, fully unlocking the power of these technologies requires more than just technical breakthroughs within a single institution or a single country. It demands extensive global collaboration to pool computational resources and share the infrastructure needed to drive advancements forward.

At TII, what sets us apart is this commitment to interdisciplinary research and to creating platforms where experts from diverse backgrounds can come together to tackle some of the world’s most complex problems.

We believe in forging local and global partnerships with governments, universities, other technology institutes, and businesses. These dynamic synergies prompt innovation and create a social and economic impact, not only in the UAE but in the rest of the world as well.

For example, we’ve partnered with the UAE’s Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure to build 3D maps of the nation’s natural resources, promoting sustainable development and aiding in the discovery of mineral and renewable energy sources. TII has collaborated with New York University to release an open-source learning library, addressing critical training challenges in autonomous systems. We’ve worked with The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to focus on sustainable technologies and address environmental challenges. And TII works closely with key international organizations on AI such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) to bring to life practical solutions to key challenges.

Global collaboration thrives at conferences where researchers, businesses, and professionals can exchange ideas. In line with the United Nations’ declaration to name 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, we decided to hold the TII Quantum Technology Symposium in January.

With the UAE Cyber Security Council, we’re organizing CyberQ: Security in the Quantum Era in November to discuss the fundamental challenges of the quantum age of cybersecurity. We’re also organizing the Open Source AI Summit, which will provide a platform for experts from around the world to discuss opportunities to bridge the digital divide as well as ways to tackle challenges inherent to open-source AI.

We also see competitions and challenges as powerful drivers to encourage global teamwork and advance research. They incentivize innovation by offering financial rewards, recognition, and career opportunities, and they motivate individuals and teams to think creatively to solve complex problems.

As we confront the greatest challenges of our time, we must accelerate our efforts toward global collaboration to advance technologies.

Governments, institutions, and industries must commit to concrete actions, forming more inclusive partnerships, fostering cross-disciplinary research, and sharing innovations openly to ensure a better, sustainable, and more equitable world.

Only through collective action can we create a better future for all.

Dr. Najwa Aaraj is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the Technology Innovation Institute (TII), the applied research pillar of the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), the overarching advanced technology body in Abu Dhabi responsible for driving research and development for transformative technology outcomes. 

Aaraj has extensive expertise in applied cryptography, trusted platforms, security architecture for embedded systems, software exploit detection and prevention systems, and biometrics. She has over 18 years of experience with global firms and is an advisor to multiple security and machine learning startups and advisory groups. 

In 2021, she received a special recognition award at the Arab Woman Awards 2021, held in partnership with the United Nations to recognize the notable achievements of the region’s women.