International collaboration is vital to efforts to harness scientific research to tackle vital issues such as climate change and the future of health care, an Emirati minister said at the World Economic Forum on Monday.
Speaking at a session titled Safeguarding Global Scientific Collaboration, Sarah Al Amiri, Minister of State for Public Education and Future Technology and chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency, highlighted that most issues addressed by science were global rather than local.
She told the five-person panel discussion in Davos, Switzerland, that it was important to build collaboration into research agendas.
“One of our key objectives of research and development is to utilise international collaboration as a mechanism to increase the impact and outcomes of science,” said Ms Al Amiri, who was appointed to her new ministerial position on Sunday.
Because many issues that science deals with, such as climate change, health care and coastline transformation, are global, Ms Al Amiri said there need not be any tension between national objectives and global scientific collaboration.
It was also vital, she told delegates, to ensure scientific funding was consistent, regardless of changes in government priorities.
“Science is long term and solving issues needs to be long term,” she said.
“There are not aspects that you can pick and choose or change year-on-year or every five years.”
Scientists should help set global agenda
Ms Al Amiri said scientists should have an input into government scientific policy, highlighting that in the UAE several advisory groups for particular areas of science had been set up to determine national priorities.
“Scientists have a say when it comes to the division of the priority areas,” she said.
“They have a voice on the table so it doesn’t become a single top-down lens and doesn’t become a lens driven by industry … ensuring every voice is equal.”
While governments should fund fundamental science, Ms Al Amiri said they should also demonstrate “actionable on-the-ground changes” that resulted from research, as this could make the public understand the importance of science.
Helping public understand value of research
On a similar theme, Prof Maria Leptin, president of the European Research Council, said more should be done to ensure the public understood how science worked, as this could make them value research findings.
“What I would do is make every child begin to learn in kindergarten the value of the scientific method,” Prof Leptin said.
“The reason we have mistrust from society in science is because society does not understand the scientific method. It does not understand what our ‘truth’, which they doubt, is based on.”
Dr Magdalena Skipper, editor-in-chief of scientific journal Nature, who chaired the session, suggested that publications such hers carried out “curation and synthesis” of scientific research to ensure the findings of research were understood and gaps in knowledge highlighted.
Covid-19 shows importance of unity
Discussing openness and collaboration, another speaker, Dan Vahdat, co-founder and chief executive of healthcare technology company Medopad, said there were clear examples where a lack of scientific co-operation was harmful.
“There’s a huge competitiveness between scientists, between healthcare providers, between hospitals that are sources of science and so on,” he said.
“Sometimes they don’t share care pathways that can lead to saving lives. That’s why you go to … institution X in the US because they do cancer management of breast cancer better because they use a very unique care pathway that some university hospital in the UK doesn’t, or vice versa.”
He said researchers could “do more” when it came to co-operating and sharing data, citing international scientific co-operation during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Scientific research should, he said, be open source and free to access, in contrast to the current situation, where some journals charge hefty fees for material to be read.
One factor that could hamper scientific collaboration, said Dr Fabiola Gianotti, a researcher from Italy who is director general of the CERN particle physics research centre in Switzerland, is “a global decline of trust”.
“Governments [or] countries sometimes are not collaborating as they should be doing,” she said.
“It’s also interesting to note that science can build trust but science without openness and trust is not successful.”
Some problems of collaboration and trust between governments when it came to science resulted from the dual use of technology, Dr Gianotti said, a likely reference to the possibility that inventions could sometimes be adapted for, in particular, military purposes.
It was nevertheless important, Dr Gianotti said, for countries to ensure that researchers were able to collaborate with scientists abroad, even when their respective governments were “not friends”.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
Size: 300 employees
Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC
So what is Spicy Chickenjoy?
Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Jollibee has Spicy Chickenjoy – a piece of fried chicken that’s crispy and spicy on the outside and comes with a side of spaghetti, all covered in tomato sauce and topped with sausage slices and ground beef. It sounds like a recipe that a child would come up with, but perhaps that’s the point – a flavourbomb combination of cheap comfort foods. Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s best-selling product in every country in which it has a presence.
Mountain Classification Tour de France after Stage 8 on Saturday:
- 1. Lilian Calmejane (France / Direct Energie) 11
- 2. Fabio Aru (Italy / Astana) 10
- 3. Daniel Martin (Ireland / Quick-Step) 8
- 4. Robert Gesink (Netherlands / LottoNL) 8
- 5. Warren Barguil (France / Sunweb) 7
- 6. Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) 6
- 7. Guillaume Martin (France / Wanty) 6
- 8. Jan Bakelants (Belgium / AG2R) 5
- 9. Serge Pauwels (Belgium / Dimension Data) 5
- 10. Richie Porte (Australia / BMC Racing) 4
The fake news generation
288,000 – the number of posts reported as hate speech that were deleted by Facebook globally each month in May and June this year
11% – the number of Americans who said they trusted the news they read on Snapchat as of June 2017, according to Statista. Over a quarter stated that they ‘rarely trusted’ the news they read on social media in general
31% - the number of young people in the US aged between 10 and 18 who said they had shared a news story online in the last six months that they later found out was wrong or inaccurate
63% - percentage of Arab nationals who said they get their news from social media every single day.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Barcelona v Liverpool, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE).
Second leg
Liverpool v Barcelona, Tuesday, May 7, 11pm
Games on BeIN Sports
List of alleged parties
May 12, 2020: PM and his wife Carrie attend 'work meeting' with at least 17 staff
May 20, 2020: They attend 'bring your own booze party'
Nov 27, 2020: PM gives speech at leaving party for his staff
Dec 10, 2020: Staff party held by then-education secretary Gavin Williamson
Dec 13, 2020: PM and his wife throw a party
Dec 14, 2020: London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey holds staff event at Conservative Party headquarters
Dec 15, 2020: PM takes part in a staff quiz
Dec 18, 2020: Downing Street Christmas party
Crops that could be introduced to the UAE
1: Quinoa
2. Bathua
3. Amaranth
4. Pearl and finger millet
5. Sorghum
Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah To The Last Goodbye
By Dave Lory with Jim Irvin
Five personal finance podcasts from The National
To help you get started, tune into these Pocketful of Dirham episodes
·
Balance is essential to happiness, health and wealth
·
What is a portfolio stress test?
·
What are NFTs and why are auction houses interested?
·
How gamers are getting rich by earning cryptocurrencies
·
Should you buy or rent a home in the UAE?
Company%20profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Envi%20Lodges%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeptember%202021%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECo-founders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Noelle%20Homsy%20and%20Chris%20Nader%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20UAE%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hospitality%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2012%20to%2015%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStage%20of%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
Superliminal%20
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