Qatar Science & Technology Park
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Qatar Science & Technology Park is a home for international technology companies in Qatar, and an incubator of start-up technology businesses. Established in 2004 as a part of Qatar Foundation, the purpose of the science park is to spur development of Qatar’s knowledge economy.
QSTP functions by providing office and lab space to tenant companies, in a complex of multi-user and single-user buildings, and by providing professional services and support programs to those companies. In September 2005 the Government of Qatar passed a law making the science park a “free zone”, allowing foreign companies to set up a 100 percent owned entity free from tax and duties.
A key feature of QSTP is that it is co-located at Qatar Foundation’s Education City with leading international universities. These include Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Georgetown, Texas A&M and Virginia Commonwealth. The science park helps its tenant companies to collaborate with the universities, and acts as an incubator for spin-out ventures from the universities (and other sources).
Qatar Foundation itself was established in 1995 by the Emir of Qatar, and has been chaired since by his wife Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned.
In September 2006 QSTP announced three funding programs to support start-up companies and the commercialisation of technology. All applicants are required to be in Qatar or re-locate there.
- Proof of Concept Fund, a $12m program of grants for researchers to develop and validate early-stage innovations
- New Enterprise Fund, a $30m seed funding program providing equity capital to newly starting technology companies
- Technology Venture Fund, a $100m venture capital fund investing in growth-stage technology companies.
Tenants of QSTP are required to make technology development their main activity but can also trade commercially. The first companies to join QSTP were EADS, ExxonMobil, GE, Microsoft, Rolls-Royce, Shell and Total.
ANGLE plc was appointed by Qatar Foundation in 2004 to plan, implement and manage QSTP until 2009.
