Oman’s Ministry of Higher Education and Shell have signed an agreement to launch “Shell Ideas360” competition for the first time in the Sultanate in September.

Dr Abdullah bin Mohammed Al-Sarmi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Higher Education, signed the agreement with Chris Breeze, Shell’s country chairman in Oman, and Mohammed bin Mahmood Al Balushi, Shell Oman Marketing Company’s chief executive officer.

Shell Ideas360 is a global competition that invites university and college students from all around the world to create, share and collaboratively develop innovative ideas and solutions that tackle global challenges associated with energy, water and food resources.

Dr Al Sarmi said: “This agreement reflects Ministry’s and Shell’s commitment to support creativity and innovation among Higher Education Institution (HEI) students. This initiative will definitely encourage our creative students to share their innovative and research ideas and compete with their peers locally and internationally.”

“Shell is committed to support youth development and sustainability in Oman,” said Breeze.

“This competition will prompt young Omanis to tap into their imagination and creativity in order to develop innovative solutions to the problems facing the society now.

“Successful students will benefit from the connection with the competition mentors to help fine tune their ideas and in doing so develop their entrepreneurial and marketing skills as well as potentially contributing to sustainable development in the country. We are looking forward to the launch of this competition in collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education and our partners in the Omani universities and colleges,” he added.

Al Balushi said: “Shell Ideas360 is a global platform for young students from Oman to connect internationally in order to acquire competencies that will help in building their future beyond university years, such as in leadership, collaboration and presentation skills. Successful entries will have the opportunity to really make a difference in the world by turning their innovative ideas into reality. These ideas could also be potentially ‘investment-worthy' business cases creating successful entrepreneurs in Oman with the support of Shell and subject-matter experts and mentors, and we will definitely be hoping for successful stories from Oman.”

In addition to the prize scheme that will be awarded locally to the qualifying teams from Oman, the winning students will win once-in-a-lifetime National Geographic Adventure. The best ideas will be considered for funding by the Shell Game Changer programme, which has invested over $300 million to date, and worked with over 1,500 innovators, turning more than 100 ideas into reality. – TradeArabia News Service