The UAE Government celebrated the winners of the UAE Innovates Award during a ceremony held at the Museum of the Future (MOTF) in Dubai yesterday on Monday. Eight winning projects were singled out from almost 500 submissions in the second edition of the annual awards program.
The award ceremony concluded UAE Innovates 2022, the largest national initiative of its kind by the Mohammed bin Rashid Centre for Government Innovation (MBRCGI), which comprised events and activities across all seven emirates throughout February attracting broad participation from federal and local government entities, the private sector, academia, and community members. UAE Innovates aims to enrich the culture of innovation in the country and promote community participation in creating experiences and initiatives that can support the UAE’s vision for the next 50 years.
The ceremony was attended by HE Hessa bint Essa Buhumaid, Minister of Community Development, HE Ohood bint Khalfan Al Roumi, Minister of State for Government Development and the Future, HE Abdulla Nasser Lootah, Director General of the Prime Minister's Office at the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs, and HE Huda Al Hashimi, Deputy Minister of Cabinet Affairs for Strategic Affair.
Her Excellency Ohood bint Khalfan Al Roumi, Minister of State for Government Development and the Future, said: “Our leadership has ensured innovation is a central pillar of the UAE for the next 50 years. The activities of UAE Innovates 2022 reflect the UAE’s efforts to cultivate a culture of innovation within government and society through various initiatives, projects, and events. The UAE Innovates Award embodies the government’s strategy to incubate and develop innovative solutions and stimulate creative ideas from government employees to find solutions to challenges.”
Her Excellency Huda Al Hashimi, Deputy Minister of Cabinet Affairs for Strategic Affairs, commented: “With the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister, The UAE Government has succeeded in making innovation a common practice within government and society to prepare a new generation of innovators, enhancing their capabilities and motivating them to participate in developing proactive solutions for future challenges, thus contributing to improving lives.”
Al Hashimi congratulated the award winners and called on them to continue to actively participate in finding new and innovative solutions to challenges. She also called for the deployment of innovations and pioneering ideas to ensure the sustainability of opportunities and solutions, while enhancing the nation’s scientific and technological excellence.
The UAE Innovates Award ceremony recognized eight government agencies that presented innovative projects were chosen from more than 460 initiatives and projects across six main categories included: the automation of government procedures; digital leadership; resource utilization, simplifying procedures; social services; and the best radical innovation. The winning projects will be included in the third edition of the UAE Innovations Report. Judges assessed according to several evaluation criteria, including novelty, replicability, impact, speed, and proactivity.
The Best Innovation Award for the Automation of Government Procedures
The Artificial Intelligence Dementia Diagnosis Project won the Best Innovation Award for the Automation of Government Procedures. Emirates Health Services (EHS) participated in the project, which is a computer program based on a five-minute cognition assessment tool using AI technology. It provides objective criteria of cognitive performance in elderly people.
His Excellency Dr. Youssef Al Serkal, Director General of the Emirates Foundation for Health Services, said: “We are keen to provide the highest standards of health services by leveraging innovative technologies and artificial intelligence to improve the quality of life of individuals.”
The Best Innovation in Digital Leadership
The Digital Health Passport Project, affiliated with the Dubai Health Authority (DHA), won the digital leadership category. It is an innovative digital model that merges the online systems of the public and private health sectors to provide accurate real-time data that can support decision-making and provide a mechanism for following-up on cases to ensure a rapid response. This project has contributed to accomplishing constructive and rapid changes during the COVID-19 pandemic period, as well as the recovery phase. It positively impacted the performance of Dubai’s healthcare ecosystem, while attaining the fastest response rates for positive cases. All Dubai’s residents and visitors benefited from this system.
His Excellency Awad Saghir Al Ketbi, Director General of DHA, said: “The awards promote positive competition between institutions to represent initiatives that enhance the country's keen interest in innovation and creativity. Also, the award motivates the institutions to invent new methods of providing services that exceed patient expectations and enhance the healthcare system.”
Most Innovative Use of Resources
The winner in the Most Innovative Use of Resources category was Ajman Department of Finance's Forsan Robots, which harnesses robotic process automation to monitor the implementation of the government's budget, benefitting all government agencies.
H.E. Marwan Ahmed Al Ali, Director General of Ajman’s Department of Finance at Ajman Department of Finance, said: “The department's projects reflect its efforts to enrich the culture of innovation and leadership in the financial sector, allowing employees to focus on higher-value businesses, and ensuring the integrity of Ajman government's financial performance data.”
Most Innovative Government Process
The Most Innovative Government Process category was shared by two entities: The Ministry of Community Development and Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority for their e-connection social security project. The project succeeded in e-connecting with 44 government and local entities to ensure work facilitation and acceleration. It contributed to conducting over 18 million transactions in 29 months, saving more than 7 billion dirhams in providing services costs and reducing the number of visits by 22,000 annually. This has saved more than 10 million dirhams in the social security budget annually and reduced the social security beneficiaries gap from 200,000 to 80,000 per month while cutting the waiting list by 50%.
Her Excellency Hessa bint Essa Buhumaid, Minister of Community Development, commented: “Our participation in the award is aligned with the vision of the country's leadership to stimulate innovative ideas and adopt innovations, supporting the country’s direction for the next 50 years. We are proud to participate in the activities of UAE Innovates by launching various initiatives that enhance our services”.
His Excellency Eng. Majed Sultan Al-Mismar, Director General of the Communications Regulatory Authority and Digital Government said: "The APIs platform project embodies the government’s digital transformation. Digital governance is no longer a project limited to one sector, but rather a joint effort involving all sectors to prepare the future in a practical way.”
Most Innovative Community Services
In the Most Innovative Community Services category, the award was won by Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority for its innovative Comprehensive Childhood Data System, an advanced analytics platform using the latest technologies. This platform conducts a 360 study of a child's situation in order to understand the challenges facing the early childhood sector and highlight areas of improvement in this sector to support decisions and policymakers. This system has revealed that children of underprivileged families are facing challenges at an emirate level, which led to the formation of a work team from various government agencies to design targeted support programs to address this challenge.
Her Excellency Sanaa Mohammed Suhail, Director General of the Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority, said: “Since our inception in 2019, we have developed an effective strategy based on participation, change and innovation which is a key feature of our work to contribute in enhancing the UAE’s global position.”
Most Innovative Disruptive Project
The Ministry of Interior won in this category with its Facial Recognition for Remote Digital Verification of Digital Transactions and Identities project, a digital portal for remotely authenticating digital transactions and identities using facial recognition. The project succeeded in authenticating more than 2 million digital identity accounts, opening more than 40,000 bank accounts and testing more than 20,000 applicants.
Major General Khalifa Hareb Al Khaili, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior, said: “I am proud of the ministry’s continuous efforts to support the modernization of the police work system and raising efficiency and performance in a way that enhances safety and security and improves the happiness and well-being of society”.
In the Most Innovative Disruptive Project category, Dubai Customs won with its Customs Dolphins project, a smart dolphin-like remotely controlled aquatic robot that moves at high speeds on the surface of the sea and carries a camera that can be controlled from above or below to monitor vessels and maritime traffic.
His Excellency Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, Director General of Dubai Customs and CEO of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation, said: “Dubai Customs has succeeded in developing a work environment that stimulates creativity and innovation, and develop innovations that gain more importance in promoting trade and facilitating travel.”