Wednesday 01 / October / 2025
Sohar: Sohar University on Wednesday held a ceremony to lay the foundation stone for a building that will house its Innovation Centre
The ceremony also saw the signing of agreements in the fields of research, technology and innovation.
It was held under the auspices of Dr. Rahma Ibrahim Al Mahrouqi, Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, in the presence of Dr. Abdulrahman Ibrahim Almedaires, Director General of the UNESCO Regional Centre for Quality and Excellence in Education.
Dr. Hamdan Al Fazari, Vice-Chancellor of Sohar University, said that the centre’s construction, which will cost OMR4 million, is carried out with support from the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation.
The building will occupy a total area of 17,457 square metres and will comprise specialised labs, a patent office and an international business accelerator, Al Fazari added.
He pointed out that the centre’s construction reflects the university’s efforts to support research and entrepreneurship, foster a culture of creativity and support researchers and students in their bids to convert their ideas into products and services of economic value.
Al Fazari explained that, by setting the innovation centre, the university seeks to establish an environment would facilitate the transfer of knowledge, technology and ideas from the academic domain to the industrial domain, with the prime objective of boosting the national economy and meeting the needs of society.
He added that the centre will provide advanced laboratories, business incubators and innovation spaces that will enable students and researchers to convert their ideas into projects with economic and societal value.
The innovation centre at Sohar University is considered a pioneering step in supporting research and innovation—the first of its kind in private higher education institutions in the Sultanate of Oman.
The ceremony saw the inauguration of a “Research Chair in Emerging Renewable And Sustainable Energy Technologies”, in addition to the signing of agreements with Ooredoo and the UNESCO Regional Centre for Quality and Excellence in Education. -ONA
