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04Challenge Labs

Real challenges. Diverse minds. Practical collaboration.

Labs begin upstream inside the cohorts rather than existing only as Forum sessions. Teams of ten to twelve, cross-regional by construction, working a challenge someone actually owns.

01Every Lab moves through

  1. 01

    Challenge

    A real, named problem brought by an institution or a participant — not a hypothetical.

  2. 02

    Ideas

    Teams of 10–12, cross-regional and cross-sector by design. No team is single-country.

  3. 03

    Collaboration

    One institutional mentor, one facilitator, two working sessions across days one and two.

  4. 04

    Proposed action

    A pathway that can survive the flight home, with a named owner attached to it.

  5. 05

    Named partner

    The institution or individual who carries it forward, identified in the room.

  6. 06

    Next step

    Fed directly into the Dubai Commitment and tracked publicly at 90, 180 and 365 days.

The final three steps are what separate a Lab from a workshop: a proposal without an owner and a date is not an output.

02The six Labs

Six challenges, carried across the cycle.

01People

Future of Work

Cross-border talent, remote enterprise and credential portability between the two regions.

02Innovation

AI & African Innovation

Tooling, data, talent and deployment — what it takes to build and ship from the continent.

03Enterprise

Cross-Border Entrepreneurship

Market entry, corporate structuring, capital and licensing across the UAE–Africa corridor.

04Society

Sustainable Cities & Climate

Technology, finance and delivery for urban and climate infrastructure in both regions.

05Society

Creative & Cultural Economy

Intellectual property, distribution and export for creative enterprises working across regions.

06People

Education & Human Capital

Skills, mobility and institutional partnership between universities and employers.

03What participants leave with

Something tangible, or it did not work.

  • 01

    A cross-border business concept

  • 02

    A partnership proposal

  • 03

    A youth-led initiative

  • 04

    A research collaboration

  • 05

    A technology pilot

  • 06

    A market-entry strategy

  • 07

    A social-impact project

  • 08

    An institutional collaboration

Apply for the February cohortSee the Masterminds