The Emirate of Sharjah has announced plans to set up a Science and Technology Innovation Centre at Kochi. The Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) and Infopark , Kochi have already  signed a Memorandum of Understanding .

Ahmed Mohammed Al Midfa, Chairman, SCCI and Siddhartha Bhattacharya, CEO, Infopark, signed the MoU at the ‘India & Sharjah – Partners in Progress’ event held at the premises of the Chamber premises in Sharjah on Friday.

The Sharjah Science and Technology Innovation Centre will be set up in the Infopark campus at Kochi.

The Centre is envisaged as a platform to provide Sharjah-based business houses access to talent and knowledge-based resources in Kerala.

The main objective is to help small and medium enterprises in Sharjah conduct research and development for the development of innovative products and services in a cost effective manner. India has been a major trading partner of the UAE and is an ideal choice for a venture of this sort. The State of Kerala boasts of some of the leading research institutes of India working in diverse fields like space technology, biotechnology and engineering sciences. The new initiative will facilitate the joint production of value-added solutions.  The innovation centre would facilitate direct collaboration in research activities between businesses in Sharjah and universities in Kerala. The MoU also involves a partnership mechanism to commercialise the benefits of the research.