Latest news with #InnovationNation
Kuwait Times
16-07-2025
- Business
- Kuwait Times
Zain's Innovation Nation Summer Camp empowers 2,600 children
Zain's Innovation Nation Summer Camp empowers 2,600 children Another milestone reinforcing company's role as a key enabler of Kuwait's digital future KUWAIT: Zain Kuwait has successfully concluded the third edition of its Innovation Nation Summer Camp, held in collaboration with Sabah Al-Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity — a Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) center — and Assima Mall. The program successfully empowered nearly 2,600 boys and girls to explore the worlds of technology and digital innovation, creating unforgettable memories that pave the way for their future ambitions. Over the course of ten days, the camp provided an inspiring, interactive space for children aged 7 to 14 to engage in exciting educational experiences across innovative fields such as robotics, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, electronics, and renewable energy. Fun educational experiences on the fundamentals of technology. Zain continues its efforts to digitally empower the next generation. The success of this year's camp marks another milestone in Zain's ongoing journey to empower future generations, reinforcing its role as a key enabler of Kuwait's digital transformation through educational and community initiatives that open doors to innovation and knowledge. The workshops were led by a team of certified trainers from the Sabah Al-Ahmad Center, in addition to engineering students from GUST (the Innovation Nation Leaders) and part-time members of Zain's FUN program. The team developed interactive educational content using non-traditional methods that encouraged children to experiment, discover, and learn through hands-on practice. Activities included fun learning experiences that focused on practical, interactive components, such as building pet-shaped robots and delivery bots, learning the basics of AI, exploring 3D printing and electronics, and understanding concepts in renewable energy and smart innovation. These experiences enriched the children's passion for technology and science. This camp was part of the wider Innovation Nation initiative, which embodies Zain's strategy to support and empower the next generation by offering inspiring educational opportunities in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields. It reaffirms Zain's commitment to playing a vital role in shaping a promising digital future for Kuwait.
Kuwait Times
06-07-2025
- Business
- Kuwait Times
Zain: Innovation Nation summer camp ignites children's passion for technology
Now in its third season, in collaboration with SACGC and Assima Mall KUWAIT: Zain has officially kicked-off the third edition of its Innovation Nation summer camp, an educational initiative aimed at children and young teens, organized in collaboration with Sabah Al-Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity – a Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) center – and Assima Mall. The camp aims to develop children's digital skills while encouraging creativity and discovery in the fields of technology and innovation. The opening day welcomed the attendance of Zain Kuwait's Chief Commercial Officer Meshal Al-Kandari and Chief Corporate Affairs and Relations Officer Waleed Al-Khashti, along with Dr. Dhari Al-Huwail, Board Member at SACGC, and Salem Al-Baz, Director of Technological Development at the center. Also present were representatives from the organizing entities, parents, and stakeholders from the education and tech community. The camp runs daily until 12 July from 12 PM to 8 PM at Assima Mall – ground floor – and is open to children aged 7 to 14. It features a series of interactive workshops designed to spark curiosity and build future-ready skills, with activities that fully engage participants in a vibrant, hands-on learning environment. Initiative aims to encourage children to explore and be creative in the fields of technology and innovation. Interactive workshops designed to spark curiosity and build future-ready skills. The camp runs daily until 12 July. The workshops offer a variety of engaging educational experiences focused on practical and interactive learning. These include building robot pets and delivery bots, learning the basics of artificial intelligence, exploring 3D printing and electronics, as well as renewable energy and smart inventions. Each session is crafted to enrich children's passion for science and technology through active exploration. The workshops are led by a team of certified trainers from Sabah Al-Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity, supported by engineering students from the Gulf University for Science and Technology - GUST (acting as IN Summer Camp Leaders), and members of Zain's part-time FUN team. Together, they deliver dynamic and accessible content in creative ways that encourage learning through experimentation, all without the need for prior registration. As part of its ongoing commitment to its internal community, Zain also organized a dedicated digital summer camp for employees' children at the Zain Innovation Campus (ZINC) located at the company's headquarters in Shuwaikh. This two-day program served two age groups (7–10 and 11–14), offering hands-on training in programming, logical thinking, electronics, robotics, and modern technologies. This camp falls under Zain's broader Innovation Nation initiative, which reflects the company's strategic commitment to empowering the next generation through inspiring educational opportunities in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). The initiative underlines Zain's role as a key driver in building a promising digital future for Kuwait.
Kuwait Times
30-06-2025
- Business
- Kuwait Times
Zain holds Innovation Digital Nation Summer Camp for employees' kids
Zain holds Innovation Digital Nation Summer Camp for employees' kids Company invests in its own to shape a digitally creative future KUWAIT: Zain successfully held the second edition of its Innovation Nation (IN) Digital Summer Camp for employees' children, in collaboration with Sabah Al-Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity (SACGC) — one of the centers of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS). The program aimed to help shape a creative digital generation capable of leading tomorrow's economy with confidence. The camp was held at the Zain Innovation Campus (ZINC) at the company's main headquarters in Shuwaikh. This specialized program in digital skill-building reflects Zain's commitment to investing in the next generation of digital leaders, starting from within its own corporate family. It focused on developing children's skills in innovation, creativity, robotics, logical thinking, and problem-solving. This year's program saw wide engagement from the targeted age groups (children aged 7–10 and youth aged 11–14). Interactive activities and hands-on workshops that combined learning and fun. Group photo of participants – Children aged 7–10 years. Group photo of participants – Youth aged 11–14 years. It featured a range of interactive activities and hands-on workshops that blended education with entertainment, providing a stimulating environment to explore young talents in technology, engineering, and science (STEM). The program reflects Zain's vision to foster innovation and creativity, elevate digital competence across various segments of society, and support entrepreneurial thinking among the next generation, all in alignment with the demands of the digital economy and the goals of building an Innovation Nation. This initiative adds to the series of impactful programs Zain leads as part of its Innovation Nation initiative to empower future generations and prepare youth to lead Kuwait's digital transformation journey.
Scotsman
11-06-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
Scotland can be an innovation nation again - here's how
PA This is a chance to write a new chapter—not by erasing the past, but by building on it Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Scotland has led the world before, and it can lead again. Scotland has more world- class universities per head than innovation powerhouses like Switzerland or Singapore. It's the only part of the UK where high-potential firms are more likely than their London peers to secure early-stage investment. And half of the UK's most active angel investor networks are based here. Thanks to decades of effort by businesses, universities, and public agencies, Scotland may be the best place in the UK to start an innovative firm. Mission accomplished, you might think. Wait a while, and the jobs, industries, and incomes will follow. That's how growth has happened before. As the economist David Autor has shown, the jobs most of us do today didn't even exist in 1940. Out with the miners, in with the solar engineers and wedding planners. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad But there's nothing automatic about translating headline innovation into broad-based prosperity. Too many Scottish firms, once they reach a certain scale, find they must either sell or relocate elsewhere in the UK or to the US to grow. Dundee University spin-out Exscientia—a global leader in AI drug discovery—moved to Oxford to become Scotland's first biotech 'unicorn'. The bigger problem is structural. Scotland has one of the most lopsided innovation economies in the world. It ranks second globally for university R&D as a share of GDP, yet sits mid-table on private sector R&D. For every pound of public research spending in Scotland, just £1.46 is matched by private investment—half the UK average, and a third of the OECD rate. It doesn't have to be this way. In a new report, Innovation Nation, published last week by Our Scottish Future, I set out a five-point plan to raise private innovation and ensure Scotland's ideas scale at home. I begin with a call for a single plan, shared between the Scottish Government, UK Government and local leadership. There is no 'silver bullet' for policymakers; success will require the careful coordination of reserved and devolved policy levers, as well as local consent and support. That shared set of priorities is far from Scotland's current reality: a spaghetti junction of competing Scottish and UK institutions, impossible for business to navigate and – taken together – less than the sum of its parts. Dan Turner | Dan Turner But a plan for what? Scotland's most pressing problem is not an absence of talent, infrastructure and access to capital. It's that – with a few notable exceptions – it lacks what economists call 'clusters' of similar businesses, all of whom become more productive because they can draw on a shared pool of expertise, workers, supply chains and specialist infrastructure such as lab space or testing facilities. As well as being good for individual firms, these clusters are good for communities: they give firms a strong reason to stay put and invest, rather than relocate elsewhere. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad My second recommendation is for tax and planning reform, capital spending, and political leadership to create five 'Growth Zones'. These would be small campuses, putting major research facilities, indigenous start-ups, and multinational enterprises side-by-side. Scotland already has the first two; the Scottish and UK governments will have to negotiate the third, while local leaders do the hard work of assembling the land, finding the funders, builders and tenants, and creating new economic hubs. To do that, local leaders will need more power, status and – correspondingly – accountability. Following earlier Our Scottish Future work, I call for Scottish Combined Authorities, based on the successful model of Manchester, to cover Scotland's major urban areas. As well as being responsible for the Growth Zones, these Scottish Combined Authorities should play a lead role in connecting the engines of the innovation economy into wider social and economic life on their patch. If we don't make an intentional effort, overreliance on innovation-led growth can make inequalities worse. And that's not just inequitable: it's inefficient. Researchers at Harvard and MIT have shown that we could raise patenting levels fourfold if we could bring talented youths from communities typically left behind by innovation into the labs and research centres. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad And last but not least, any shift in efforts towards building up Scotland's clusters can't come at the cost of stopping – or worse, reversing – support for the universities and early stage investors that currently speaks so much to Scotland's credit. The risk, in Holyrood and Westminster, is that we cut back on innovation funding and cut ourselves off to global talent. Scotland cannot afford to kill its golden goose. The work we do shapes how we see ourselves and the places we live. Scotland's identity is still deeply tied to its industrial heyday—shipbuilding on the Clyde, coal and oil from Fife and Aberdeenshire, medical breakthroughs from Edinburgh. But there is no reason the 21st century can't belong to Scotland too. Indeed, we can see its outline already. Glasgow's former workshops now house Europe's largest satellite cluster and cutting-edge life sciences. Edinburgh's fintech firms are reimagining payment and exchange. Dundee has shifted from jute to gaming and advanced therapeutics. Aberdeen is preparing for its second great energy transition, leading on hydrogen and offshore renewables. This is a chance to write a new chapter—not by erasing the past, but by building on it. Scotland's future industries can honour its industrial legacy: drawing on the same places, the same skills, the same deep pride in work. But to get there, we need to do something new: create jobs in the innovation economy, at every skill level, across the country. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad That is the challenge and the opportunity. To remake Scotland's innovative legacy —not as a monument to past glory, but as a home for modern, inclusive, enduring industry. That's what it means to become an innovation nation.
The Herald Scotland
04-06-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Gordon Brown: Here is how to create 300,000 Scots jobs in 10 years
A new report to be published this week by the think tank Our Scottish Future lays bare this challenge. We could create 300,000 good jobs over the next ten years – and be in the lead in areas as advanced as precision medicine, quantum computing, carbon capture and storage, and even video games. Go to Dundee and you'll find the most advanced video games technologies that rival Grand Theft Auto and which had their origins in the city. Read more Go to Aberdeen and you'll find them developing wind and wave power and hydrogen to complement the world leadership we enjoyed in North Sea oil and gas. Come to Glasgow and the city that was once home to shipbuilding and steel is now at the centre of the world life science industry, with academic, clinical and commercial expertise from drug discovery to the most up-to-date personalised medicine based on DNA, and remarkable advanced manufacturing. And look at Edinburgh, where not only is fintech moving forward, but the city has had for 60 years a lead in artificial intelligence and is home to some of the most advanced computers in the world. But to convert our ideas and innovations into jobs, we have to invest in the future – in research, in education, and most of all, in people. For every £1 we spend on research in our world-class universities, we get back just £1.46 in business investment. That's half what the UK delivers. Across the OECD, it's more than triple. And look at the skills gap. We turn out a higher share of graduates than in most countries in the world – but too many well qualified Scottish university leavers end up working in non graduate jobs. This is not just a shortfall hurting our economic growth. It's indicative of the fact that we in Scotland are squandering our potential. The report, Innovation Nation, pulls no punches. It says what many of us already know: the system isn't working. We have the talent, the research, and the ambition. We have the capability - and the need - to deliver inclusive economic growth, creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs through exciting growth sectors such as life sciences, advanced manufacturing, and green energy. What we don't have is the leadership and joined-up thinking to make it count. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown (Image: free) That's why this week in Glasgow Our Scottish future is bringing together some of the brightest minds in the world of innovation and technology. With us is Kate Bingham who pioneered the vaccine task force that saved thousands of job of lives. Kasim Kutay who heads one of most Europe's most innovative bioscience groups, Novo Nordisk. Michael Spence, the Nobel Prize winner who's the expert on AI. Jim Rowan who has headed not only Volvo but BlackBerry and Dyson in his time, pioneering the development of manufacturing from his Scottish engineering genius. And we have David Sainsbury the author of Windows of Opportunity and Britain's most successful science minister who has spent a lifetime arguing for the importance of innovate clusters to growth. We have Chris van der Kyl who has himself set up a large number of innovative companies from his base in Dundee. And we will have key investors from the public and private sectors and other economic experts. What's more we will have trade minister Douglas Alexander and Scottish labour leader and Anas Sarwar at an event to be introduced by the SNP Lord Provost of Glasgow. Read more For as we will show late in the week it is not too late to steer a new direction. A real industrial strategy. Innovation hubs in our great cities. Local authorities, UK and Scottish governments working together to drive real change in local areas across Scotland. And support for the businesses that want to grow, scale, and stay in Scotland. These recommendations represent a win-win for Scotland, where we raise the roof and lift the floor – creating good jobs, tackling poverty, and building a fairer, greener, more dynamic Scotland. We have a choice. Stick with the status quo, with patchy growth and missed opportunities. Or take bold action, seize the initiative, and once again lead the world in science, in enterprise, and in building a better society. Let's take that chance. Let's build Scotland's future together – and become the innovation nation we were always meant to be. Gordon Brown was Britain's Labour Prime Minster from 2007-2010
