New for 2025: Prototypes for Humanity Annual Summit introduces a new Academic Forum
In 2025, Prototypes for Humanity launched a new Academic Forum, bringing together 115 distinguished international 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.
Bridging research with real-world application
The forum emphasised the vital role 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 challenges 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:
Wellbeing & Health Futures
/ Professor Perla Maiolino. University of Oxford, UK
Socio-Economic Empowerment & Innovation
/ Professor John Gershenson, Penn State University, USA
Artificial & Augmented Intelligence
/ Dr. Wahbi El Bouri, University of Liverpool, UK
Open Theme
/ Dr. Jesus Carbajo San Martin, University of Alicante, Spain
Speculative
/ Dr. Subham Banerjee
The People’s Choice Awards were selected by attendees, recognising research that strongly resonated with the community. The winners were:
People’s Choice
/ Shabib Al Rashdi, National University, Oman
People’s Choice
/ Faris Al Malki, Taif University, Saudi Arabia
Leadership perspective
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.
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.
