Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has signed a partnership agreement with Innovation Park Muscat (IPM) to support Omani entrepreneurs and solve key production and technical challenges.

Innovation Park Muscat is one of the major initiatives by The Research Council (TRC) in a bid to encourage scientific research, innovation and activate collabouration between the academic, private and the diverse industry sectors of local and international communities.

Under the terms of a memorandum of understanding (MoU), the partners will work together on a number of important economic, energy and environmental matters to support the sultanate’s development, said a statement from PDO.

There will be concerted effort by both sides to support the development and competitiveness of the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, with local companies who work with PDO being encouraged to start their own research and development with IPM, it said.

They will encourage SMEs to carry out their basic technological research, test-proof their conceptual thoughts and innovation ideas and conduct the early-stage technology development in IPM prior to the mass production of their goods, it added.