SPARK Signs 28DIGITAL Deal to Bring European Deep Tech Research to the UAE
Sharjah's research park will help turn university-owned intellectual property from European institutions into commercial ventures, with green tech, aerospace and robotics among the target sectors.
Tariq Benali Tariq Benali covers business and corporate news across the UAE and MENA for Anecdoted, tracking the deals, leadership moves and regulatory shifts behind the region's companies. tariq@anecdoted.com
Sharjah Research, Technology and Innovation Park has signed an agreement with 28DIGITAL, a European innovation organization, to turn university-owned intellectual property into deep tech companies that can operate commercially in the UAE.
The two organizations will work on moving research discoveries toward the market and on building ventures together. Financial terms were not disclosed. Neither were targets for the number of startups expected, nor a schedule for the first launches.
A club built around university-industry work
As part of the agreement, SPARK joins 28DIGITAL's TTO Club. The name refers to technology transfer offices, the units inside universities and research institutes that handle patents, licensing and the creation of spinout companies. The club concentrates on commercializing that intellectual property and on links between universities and industry. Its first meeting is set for November in the Netherlands.
The SPARK agreement extends 28DIGITAL's SPIN: Rise program, which gives researchers training and mentoring in entrepreneurship. Ventures that begin at European research institutions would be able to pursue commercialization in the UAE through SPARK's facilities and its industry network.
Sectors and yardsticks
Green technology, aerospace, robotics, healthcare, and dual-use technologies are the target areas. Dual-use refers to technologies with both civilian and military applications. The partners will gauge progress by how many ventures launch, how many licensing agreements are signed, and how much investment is committed.
Two markets described as complementary
SPARK CEO Hussain Al Mahmoudi said the agreement links academic research to commercial opportunity. He pointed to the park's involvement in the Enterprise Europe Network, a business support network that helps companies find research and commercial partners across Europe, which SPARK joined in December 2025.
28DIGITAL CEO Federico Menna described the two markets as suited to different parts of the same problem.
"Europe and the UAE hold complementary answers: Europe's strength in research, talent, regulatory frameworks, and the UAE's speed, scale and capacity to deploy," Menna said.
Nicola Bettio, SPARK's Director of Innovation and Research Ecosystem, said researchers would be able to use the park's infrastructure and industry connections to develop and test technologies for commercial use.
For SPARK, the arrangement brings a pipeline of projects developed at European institutions. For 28DIGITAL, it adds a Gulf market where those projects can be tested and sold.
European research performance
The agreement lands amid a wider push in Europe to convert research spending into companies. The European Commission's 2026 European Innovation Scoreboard, published on July 9, put the EU's innovation performance 11.6 percentage points higher than in 2019, including a 1.7-percentage-point improvement over the year before.
28DIGITAL separately reported that its 2025 SPIN: Explore program received 170 applications and brought together 117 participants from 29 countries, representing more than 50 universities and research organizations.
