An event hosted at Expo 2020 Dubai today has seen the launch of a new innovation impact report by UBI Global, in partnership with District 2020. As an Innovation Ecosystem partner, UBI Global is collaborating with District 2020 on initiatives focused on fostering and sharing business incubation best practices and networking, to support entrepreneurship growth, and in line with District 2020’s focus on curating a global innovation ecosystem.

The report by the Sweden-based intelligence company and powered by the tech company Global Innovation Studios, examined the impact of the pandemic and social and governance initiatives, on innovators in the global business community. Along with incubators and accelerators, the report also revealed the impact of these external factors on corporate innovation teams.

Bringing together contributions and success stories from organisations in more than 45 countries, the study was fittingly launched at Expo 2020 Dubai. Expo 2020 brings together innovation, creativity and collaboration, under a mission that will be continued when the mega-event comes to an end and the site transitions into District 2020, a human-centric future city to live, work and explore. District 2020 has been designed to create a blueprint for a smart and sustainable community where people and businesses collaborate to create a more balanced, resilient and sustainable way of life. As an innovation ecosystem, District 2020 will support the growth of key industries and technologies that are shaping the future of sustainable urban environments in a post-pandemic world.

During the event, a panel of the world’s top-ranked business incubators and accelerators including SETsquared (the United Kingdom), GVA (the Russian Federation), DMZ (Canada) and Plug and Play (UAE) also undertook a deep dive into the study’s results. A further panel discussion on corporate start-up collaboration led by Founder Institute’s Regional Director Sameer Sortur featured innovation experts from Dubai’s leading businesses including Emirates, Etisalat, and Siemens.

Tala Al Ansari, Director of District 2020 Innovation Ecosystem and Scale2Dubai, said: “We’re delighted to support UBI Global in the release of this report on innovation as a part of our commitment to supporting start-ups and knowledge creation. Dubai is already a leading global center for entrepreneurship, knowledge transfer, and innovation; offering an ideal launchpad for SMEs and global talent. District 2020 aims to contribute to the emirate’s future vision by providing a global innovation ecosystem and community that facilitates co-creation between organisations of all sizes from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies to government entities through matchmaking, events, pilot projects in our living lab and more.

”We believe that with great challenges, come great learning opportunities. We are excited to see and share the success stories of global businesses triumphing through the pandemic as a result of innovation.”

Also announced at the event was the next World Incubation Summit, due to be held at District 2020 in the fourth quarter of 2022 following its transition and launch as a vibrant community that will evolve from Expo 2020 Dubai. The World Incubation Summit will bring together more than 500 attendees across global start-up programmes and corporate innovation teams to take part in a rich line-up of workshops, networking, tours, pitches, a Gala Night and Awards Ceremony. The World Incubation Summit is also where UBI Global announces the World Rankings of business incubators and accelerators as the result of the World Benchmark Study, due to commence in the Spring of 2022.

Ali Amin, Co-founder and CEO of UBI Global, commented: “Expo 2020 is the perfect place to release the Triumph of Innovation report in partnership with District 2020, and to announce next year’s World Incubation Summit, to be held here, supporting the growth of the innovation ecosystem and community that will evolve after Expo. We are looking forward to sharing the success stories that have come out of the study and recognising GVA from Russia for their success story from the business incubators and accelerators participating in the study, as well as AK Bank Lab of Turkey as the corporate innovation team that met the pandemic challenge. ” ”We are also delighted to honourably mention the success of business accelerator Aalto Startup Center from Finland and corporate innovation team of Sberbank (Russia) for their initiatives during a difficult time. Dubai is a rich launch pad for start-ups and innovation, and we’re excited to watch how it progresses over the coming months and years and we’re pleased to partner with District 2020 to propel this further.”