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The UAE Food Security Office launched the open "Food Research Platform" – the first-of-its-kind in the region – with the new portal now accessible on the official website of the office, aimed at creating a knowledge database for all scientific and practical research carried out in the UAE in the field of food security.
The launch coincides with the UAE Innovation Month 2020, which, this year, bears the theme, "The UAE Innovates in Preparation for the Next 50 Years".
The platform allows individuals and organisations to explore efforts of R&D findings, and study cases and uses of advanced technologies in the food security sector.
Additionally, the portal seeks to promote investment in sustainable food production, answering the requirements of various entities involved in the food security sector. It provides data on all components of food security, including sustainable food systems and value chains, all while streamlining R&D processes and syncing them with the UAE’s National Food Security Strategy.
Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, Minister of State for Food Security, said, "Our efforts at the Food Security Office are geared towards achieving the objectives of the National Food Security Strategy, among which is establishing the UAE as a world-leading hub in innovation-driven food security. With that in mind, we launched the ‘Food Research Platform’ to serve as a reference for researchers – whether individuals or institutions – to channel advanced technologies to develop food-security solutions here in the UAE. This, in turn, helps establish a national research database offering insight into the production, management, and the entire value chain of the food sector in the UAE."
The platform is populated with food security research data, information on key investors in the food and agriculture sectors, the UAE’s food security research agenda and instructions for patent registration in the emirates - the latter aspect serving to educate local private companies over the importance of patenting their food security technologies and innovations.
The platform includes eight thematic R&D areas from Farm IoT, which is the application of modern ICT (information and communication technologies) into agriculture, to Ag Supply Chain Technologies, and Robotics and Equipment, which include emerging applications of robots or drones in agriculture and weed control, where the agricultural robotics market is expected to reach US$11.58 billion in value by 2025.
The remaining areas consist of agricultural waste mitigation, bio-based materials (which advocate for the use of renewable non-fossil-fuel-based energy produced from biological sources), alternative food regarded as a more environmentally sustainable or healthier, novel farming such as indoor and vertical farming, and finally, agricultural biotechnology, which consists of a range of tools that can be used to modify living organisms to make or modify products, improve crops and livestock, or develop microorganisms for specific agricultural uses.
The platform which is free for users, is available in Arabic and English, and offers push notifications to alert subscribers when new content is added.
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