Engineer Omar Al-Ansari serves as the Secretary General of the QRDI Council, leading Qatar’s national research, development, and innovation (RDI) agenda. Under his leadership, innovation has been formally established as the fourth pillar of economic growth in Qatar’s Third National Development Strategy (NDS3) — a milestone that integrates RDI in to the highest levels of national planning.
He oversaw the development of the QRDI 2030 strategy, a comprehensive roadmap aimed at enabling whole-of-economy transformation by mobilizing government, industry, and academia to advance innovation-driven development. This strategic framework played a central role in shaping the innovation components of NDS3.
Under his leadership, QRDI Council launched a broad portfolio of national programs and platforms that engage all sectors of the economy.
These include the Government Innovation Leadership Program, the Corporate Innovation Leaders Program, Qatar Open Innovation, the Technology Development Grant (TDG), Small Business Innovation Grant (SBIG), the National and Academic Research Programs (NRP/ARP), the Displaced Arab Researchers (DAR) Program, and InnoLight, Qatar’s platform for collaboration and knowledge exchange for innovation.
An Industrial and Systems Engineer by training, Eng. Al-Ansari began his career at ExxonMobil and contributed to the establishment of Qatalum, Qatar’s primary aluminum plant. He went on to help shape several strategic national initiatives, including the National Food Security Strategy, before assuming his current role. His leadership has since helped align Qatar’s RDI efforts with broader national objectives, supporting the country’s long-term vision of becoming a diversified, knowledge-based economy.
