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Hamdan Bin Mohammed Attends Dubai Future Forum 2025 |
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His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), today attended the opening day of the Dubai Future Forum 2025, the world’s largest gathering of futurists. Organised by the Dubai Future Foundation, the Forum, being held at the Museum of the Future until 19 November, features more than 2,500 participants from around 100 countries, along with over 200 speakers including futurists, ministers, CEOs, academics, researchers, decision-makers, and thought leaders. His Highness affirmed that designing the future has become one of the most strategic priorities shaping the work of nations and governments, and a core pillar in the long-term plans of organisations and institutions across all sectors. He stressed the importance of strengthening integration between global capabilities, disciplines, and futurist expertise to sustain progress and ensure that humanity continues advancing in the right direction. HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed further said that Dubai’s global model for future design is founded on international partnerships and collaboration with all who share the values of optimism, proactivity, and readiness. He added that Dubai works with like-minded partners from around the world to imagine, design and implement the future that societies aspire to. He noted that the Dubai Future Forum, launched in 2022, was designed to serve as an annual global platform that brings the world’s leading futurists and future-focused institutions together in Dubai to identify national and global priorities, study emerging opportunities, unify public and private efforts, and develop future-ready services and solutions to shape a better future for humanity. His Highness affirmed that Dubai will continue to strengthen its position as a global centre for harnessing future opportunities and launching forward-looking initiatives built on collaboration between experts, institutions, governments, young talents, innovators, and creative thinkers. He emphasised that Dubai remains committed to developing solutions to future challenges by leveraging advanced technologies and ensuring that societal needs remain at the heart of all progress. Dubai Foresight Awards During the Forum, His Highness, accompanied by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, honoured the first place winners of the inaugural edition of the Dubai Foresight Awards, aimed at celebrating outstanding futurists, innovators, visionaries, and future designers from around the world. The awards recognise excellence across three categories that advance the foundations, applications, and impact of foresight on societies and the environment. In theForesight Change Makers category, first place was awarded to Fiji’s‘Pasifika Futures Report’, which highlighted the importance of embedding indigenous Pacific wisdom and knowledge into foresight to reshape how futures are imagined. Second place went to the UNICEF Innocenti Youth Foresight Fellowship (UYFF) Program in Pakistan, while third place was awarded to France’s ‘Sustainable Futures’ initiative for its contribution to making foresight a daily practice and a shared global language. In the Foresight for People category, Italy’s ‘City Longevity’ initiative secured first place for its pioneering integration of AI across critical sectors to support healthier, longer lives in future urban communities. The ‘Futures that Heal’ initiative from Greece earned second place for employing foresight to overcome social fragmentation and strengthen cohesion. Third place went to Australia’s ‘For Our Future’ initiative for embedding foresight as a foundation for cooperation and solidarity across generations. In the Foresight for the Planet category, first place was awarded to Cameroon’s‘Congo Basin Futures’ initiative, which underscored the importance of anticipating biodiversity futures to preserve one of Africa’s most vital ecosystems. Second place went to‘Cool Climate Collective’s Three Futures Test’, a US-based project developing foresight-based experimental tools to identify practical pathways for mitigating global warming. The third place winner was Egypt’s ‘Seeding the Future’, which presented forward-looking scenarios that open new strategic opportunities for sustainable agriculture and advanced resilience in the Nile Delta. The ceremony was attended by His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications and Deputy Managing Director of Dubai Future Foundation; His ExcellencyLieutenant General Abdulla Khalifa Al Marri, Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police; Her Excellency Hessa bintEssa Buhumaid, Director General of Dubai’s Community Development Authority; His Excellency Essa Kazim, Governor of the Dubai International Financial Centre and senior officials. Next generation of futurists His Highness also attended the graduation of the second cohort of the ‘FEEL: A disruptive Futures Program’, the region’s first international initiative of its kind developed by the Dubai Future Academy. The Program equips executives, entrepreneurs, strategists, policymakers, investors, innovators, and specialists from around the world with advanced tools to anticipate and shape future transformations. His Highness emphasised that capacity-building across all fields, including future sensing, is essential to advancing human knowledge and improving quality of life. He called on graduates to play an active role, from Dubai and through their academic, leadership, and professional positions worldwide, in opening new horizons for research, development, innovation, and entrepreneurship. The cohort included 30 participants from 15 countries, selected from 401 applications received from 68 countries. Over four weeks, the Program provided an integrated learning journey designed to build foresight capabilities and enhance participants’ ability to keep pace with rapid advancements in innovation across multiple sectors. His Highness also met with graduates of the fifth cohort of the Dubai Future Experts Program (DEEP), the world’s first government-led foresight capacity-building initiative, developed by Dubai Future Foundation in collaboration with the General Secretariat of The Executive Council of Dubai. The Program empowers Emirati talent working in middle and senior leadership positions across government and semi-government entities to become future experts in their respective fields. His Highness highlighted the importance of foresight skills in advancing Dubai’s leadership, noting that Dubai has always aimed for first place. He affirmed that the emirate’s talent benefits from an integrated support ecosystem built on teamwork and driven by a shared goal: strengthening Dubai’s competitiveness, readiness, and global leadership in line with the objectives of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33. The fifth cohort included 21 participants from 16 government entities in Dubai, who received practical and theoretical training from leading global experts in future studies, advanced analysis, and scenario design. |
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