New for 2025: Prototypes for Humanity Annual Summit introduces a new Academic Forum By Prototypes for Humanity Media Team

The 2025 Prototypes for Humanity Summit witnessed the launch of a new Academic Forum, bringing together 115 world-leading academics to help turn science-backed research into real-world outcomes through active collaboration with industry and public-sector stakeholders.

Designed to empower professors as catalysts of change, the forum enables high-level dialogue, networking, meetings and curated collaborations between academia, government, industry professionals, investors and venture experts throughout the Summit in Dubai.

Bridging research with real-world application

The forum emphasised the vital role senior academics play in turning breakthrough research into real-world outcomes. Many promising ideas remain in academia because adoption is complex and depends on the right partners, validation environments, and implementation expertise. Connecting professors with decision-makers accelerates progress and creates pathways for scientific insight to translate into pilots, partnerships, and scalable impact.

An Agenda Designed for Action

Participating professors engaged in an intensive schedule designed to spark interdisciplinary collaboration and accelerate knowledge exchange, through:

Workshops and dialogues with industry and venture experts
Industry-led innovation sandpits, shaped around real-world constraints and needs
Interdisciplinary exchanges spanning sectors and scientific domains
Peer-to-peer sessions supporting collaboration and insight-sharing

Discussions focused on urgent challenges across health, climate, energy, and AI, reinforcing the emphasis on applied, high-impact research that can respond to real-world demands.

Showcasing Global Research

The breadth of research represented in the Forum was reflected in two days of short paper presentations, showcasing work across critical scientific and societal themes, alongside PechaKucha sessions, a fast-paced format for professors to present ideas, share knowledge and spark conversation.

Awards and People’s Choice Winners

The Academic Forum concluded with Best Paper Awards, recognising outstanding academic contributions across seven categories. The winners were:

Dr. Jesus Carbajo San Martin

/ University of Alicante, Spain Eco-Friendly and Biocompatible Materials for Noise Reduction in Healthcare Environments

Dr. Subham Banerjee

/ National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, India

University of Liverpool, UK Digital Twins of the Retina: A Computational Framework for Personalised Microvascular Health Assessment

Dr. Wahbi El Bouri

University of Liverpool, UK Digital Twins of the Retina: A Computational Framework for Personalised Microvascular Health Assessment / null

Penn State University, USA Tools2Thrive: A Scalable Tool Rental Model for Smallholder Farmers in Kenya

Professor John Gershenson

Penn State University, USA Tools2Thrive: A Scalable Tool Rental Model for Smallholder Farmers in Kenya / null

University of Oxford, UK

Professor Perla Maiolino

University of Oxford, UK / null

In addition, two People’s Choice Awards were selected by attendees, recognising research that strongly resonated with the community.

The 2025 People’s Choice award winners were:

Shabib Al Rashdi, National University, Oman 

/ AI-Optimised Green Hydrogen Production from Biomass and Wastewater and Integrated CO₂ Capture Pathways via Solar-Fenton and Natural Catalysts

Faris Al Malki, Taif University, Saudi Arabia

/ Integration of Deep Learning with CubeSat Technologies for Environmental Monitoring

Leadership perspective

Speaking at the close of the forum, Tadeu Baldani Caravieri, Director of Prototypes for Humanity, said: “Professors are central to shaping solutions to real-world problems, yet often groundbreaking research doesn’t reach where it is needed most. By uniting global academic excellence with Dubai’s future-driven ecosystem, we create structured pathways for research to accelerate into real-world impact. This year’s forum which ran alongside the Dubai Future Solutions – Prototypes for Humanity exhibition, reflects the depth of scientific insight and human ingenuity needed to confront global challenges. What stood out was the willingness of academics to collaborate across disciplines – and the potential acceleration this unlocks.”

What’s next: a new publication platform in 2026

Building on this momentum, Prototypes for Humanity will launch a formal publication platform in 2026, strengthening cross-border knowledge exchange and creating new opportunities for academics whose work demonstrates measurable social or environmental impact.