July 13, 2025 | Dubai, UAE: The high-level UAE delegation visits Netherlands and makes a visit headed by Omran Sharaf, Assistant Foreign Minister for Advanced Science and Technology, after a successful tour of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Belgium. The UAE delegation visits Netherlands was made in an effort to consolidate the cooperation between research and development (R&D), new and emerging technologies, and new partnerships in innovation and advanced science areas.
The UAE delegation visits Netherlands aimed at developing closer bilateral ties with the two countries and positioning the UAE as a value-creating member of the international tech community. The tour began in the Netherlands, where the delegation met with senior Dutch government leaders of the Netherlands, leading universities, and leading technocratic firms. During the two-day duration of the program, Sharaf and the delegation had opportunities for collaborative R&D, policy discussion on innovation, and cooperation on the long term in frontier technologies such as AI, space technology, health technology, and semiconductors.
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UAE Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands Ameirah AlHefeiti accompanied the delegation, who arranged and participated in significant exchanges to establish UAE-Dutch diplomatic and technological relations.
UAE Delegation Visits Netherlands Builds Strategic Innovation Partnerships
Omran Sharaf was debriefed on strategic matters during the tour with sessions arranged by Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials such as Michiel Sweers, Vice Minister of Foreign Economic Relations, and Ernst Noorman, Ambassador-at-Large for Cyber Affairs. The focus was on enhancing cooperation among innovation ecosystems, economic diplomacy, and cyber affairs. The UAE team also got an opportunity to get acquainted with Erwin Nijsse, Director-General for Business Policy and Innovation in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Harm van de Wetering, Netherlands Space Office Director, to discuss synergies for space cooperation and innovation policy strategies.
The UAE delegation visits Netherlands also held a wide-ranging technology and innovation roundtable with the Netherlands top institutions. The forum was utilized to exchange common priorities for frontier technologies including future AI, biotech, and digital infrastructure, supporting the UAE vision to be a future driver of the future of technology internationally.
Site visits were also part of the agenda. The UAE delegation visits Netherlands also conducted informal meetings with a few of the most powerful institutions in the Netherlands such as TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research), Deltares (subsurface and water applied research institute), ASML (leaders in semiconductor technology), and Eindhoven University of Technology. These meetings facilitated more exchange of thoughts on applied research, industry-academia collaboration, and spreading advanced technology in priority fields such as management of water, chip manufacturing, and scientific education.
UAE Delegation in Belgium Explores R&D and Nanoelectronics Cooperation
Following the Netherlands sessions, the UAE delegation visited Brussels, Belgium, and met with imec, the global leading independent R&D houses in digital technology and nanoelectronics. The imec delegation savored cooperation chances in photonics, microelectronics, and quantum computing that were in sync with the UAE national strategic priorities in semiconductor technology and digital innovation.
The UAE delegation visits Netherlands also interacted with Belgian stakeholders in the wider European technology perspective and saw the UAE as the window to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region of European innovation.
Omran Sharaf denoted this crucial part of this UAE delegation visits Netherlands by stating: “This visit reaffirms the UAE’s genuine commitment to international collaboration in the key areas of science, technology, and innovation.” By having an open policy with our top partners in the Netherlands and Belgium, we are making the foundations for serious partnerships that will drive our national aspirations in frontier R&D and emerging technologies fields.”
The following are the members of the main organizations that made up the UAE delegation, namely Nouf Al Hameli, Science and Technology Adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, EDGE Group officials, Dubai Future Foundation officials, MGX officials, G42 officials, and Technology Innovation Institute (TII)—the applied research branch of the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC).
Their tour placed the UAE’s unified effort to pursue science front and center, unifying the region’s public and private sector players in crafting a symphony national innovation strategy.
The tour concluded in new energy for collaborative projects, mutual visits, and inked agreements that will drive UAE-European technology cooperation in the next few years. Vision and a wider strategic alliance of partnerships establish the UAE as the global leader in science, innovation, and emerging technology.
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