Adia Lab to host its first symposium on climate change in Abu Dhabi in November

The conference, which will be held a few weeks before Cop28, will feature keynote speeches from leading global figures

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority formed Adia Lab to focus on key sectors, including climate change. The National

Adia Lab, the research institute launched by sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, will be hosting its inaugural conference on climate change and health sciences in November, a few weeks before the Cop28 summit begins in the UAE.

The Adia Lab Symposium will be held on November 7 and 8 at the Abu Dhabi Global Market. It will address “two of the world’s most pressing issues of today” through keynotes, presentations and discussion panels, along with case studies on research projects funded by Adia Lab that use data and analytics, it said in a statement on Friday.

The Cop28 climate change conference is scheduled to be held in Dubai from November 30 to December 12, and is expected to be the most inclusive Cop conference yet. Dr Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, is the Cop28 President-designate.

Heading the list of attendees at the Adia Lab Symposium are Steven Chu, the former US Secretary of Energy and winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics, and Sandy Pentland, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, who will deliver keynote speeches.

Other notable participants include Miguel Hernan from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Shafi Goldwasser, director of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at UC Berkeley.

“Adia Lab was formed to tackle societally-important topics, and our inaugural symposium is aligned with that ambition,” Horst Simon, director of Adia Lab, said.

“We are drawing together some of the world’s leading data and computational scientists to discuss how these disciplines can help find solutions to climate change’s biggest challenges.

“Health sciences is another critical focus research area at Adia Lab, given its strong connections to data science, trustworthy artificial intelligence and other technologies.”

Abu Dhabi's initiatives in an era of global digital transformation are helping the emirate position itself at the forefront of integrating advanced technologies into its economy and society.

The UAE capital has taken a leadership role in climate change, having rolled out several programmes to support global initiatives and promote awareness around the pressing topic that will shape the future of the world.

Adia Lab plans to hold its symposium annually, and will be part of its commitment to playing an active role in the international data and computational science community, contributing to the development of Abu Dhabi’s digital ecosystem and raising opportunities for collaboration with UAE-based and international organisations.

“We have assembled a world-class advisory board and group of senior fellows at Adia Lab, and we are excited to share their insights with the research community here in the UAE and internationally,” Mr Simon said.

Adia Lab, which was announced last October, is an independent entity that focuses on climate change, energy transition, blockchain, financial inclusion, investing, automation, cyber-security, health sciences, education, telecoms and space.

On a broader scale, it is expected to play a proactive role in the development of Abu Dhabi’s digital ecosystem, in which the government has invested heavily.

The lab will also encourage multidisciplinary collaboration and aims to provide solutions for large-scale and complex problems through a “team science approach”, Mr Simon had previously said.