RIYADH — King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) and Zain Saudi Arabia Wednesday at the Riyadh Front headquarters signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation and achieving integration between the sector of research, development and innovation with the private sector and service providers in the field of drone systems.

The memorandum was signed on the sidelines of the global technological conference “LEAP” by KACST President Munir El-Desouki and Zain Saudi Arabia CEO Sultan Al-Deghaither.

This partnership aims at identifying priorities and national needs in the commercial fields of drone applications that can be accommodated in the local market, contributing to realizing the strategic plans for KACST and Zain in relevant fields.

It also aims at supporting the local content through transferring and localizing modern technologies in the field of drone systems, such as research and development to innovation marketing, including products that can offer services in the local and international markets.

This is in addition to studying technological developments concerned with this field, and utilizing the capabilities of research, development and innovation to find the accelerating technological solutions that the private sector wants to own.

The partnership also aims at technological foresight and upcoming services and application in the drone field that are envisioned to contributing to realizing sustainability, drawing a road map to benefit from human capabilities, infrastructure, commercial relations for KACST and Zain Saudi Arabia.

It would also involve cooperation in exchanging expertise, working on finding technological solutions in drones, providing financial and logistic support for the human capabilities and infrastructure to ensure sustainability and realizing joint goals.

The memorandum aspects also include cooperation in the tasks and application of survey, monitoring and photos, benefiting from drone systems developed for working on field tests to know their conformity to existing commercial applications and participating in offering symposiums and exhibitions to raise awareness on developments of relevant applications. — SPA