His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) announced today the launch of the Dubai Future Solutions, a global initiative featuring a series of challenges that will bring together scientists, designers, inventors, universities, research centres, companies and startups from around the world to create innovative solutions for improving people’s lives.

His Highness said: “Dubai always has been and continues to be a place that nurtures innovation. The world of technology and innovation is growing at a tremendous speed, and we want to be among the pioneers of future industries. The Dubai Future Solutions initiative is part of efforts to scale up the Dubai Future Foundation’s successful experience in acceleration programmes, innovative projects, and embedding a testing and innovative mindset, and transition this from a local to a global level.”

Global challenge

The Dubai Future Solutions initiative is aimed at developing solutions to the most pressing challenges facing vital sectors with a focus on energy, transportation, health, education, AI and data, the initiative allows innovators to test their pioneering ideas within Dubai’s integrated innovation ecosystem.

DFF has allocated prizes totaling US$10 million to selected projects. The successful ideas will be a starting point for creating new sectors, economies and markets, developing sustainable solutions that serve humanity, and building global partnerships based on the exchange of experience and knowledge transfer in the field of technology. In recent years, Dubai has evolved into a leading global hub for testing, developing and implementing emerging technologies, making the city an ideal platform for the initiative.

More efficient batteries

The first round of Dubai Future Solutions is the “Extreme Weatherproof Batteries Challenge” that focuses on improving the performance and durability of batteries in harsh weather, thus enhancing their use in sectors such as space or oil and gas, and areas with extreme weather conditions. The challenge responds to the world’s increasing dependence on batteries, whether in drones, portable devices, electric cars or spacecraft, which has created the need to come up with new sustainable solutions to generate and store clean energy. Companies and research centres across the globe are racing to develop cheaper, denser, lighter and more powerful batteries.

A specialised committee comprising experts in various sectors will evaluate the entries according to a set of criteria, including quality, scalability for development and practical application, economic feasibility and adaptability to changing requirements.

Interested participants can submit their ideas online at www.dubaifuture.ae/Dubai-future-solutions. The proposed solutions must be efficient, cost-effective, versatile and ready for immediate implementation.