Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP), a member of the Qatar Foundation, a  home for technology-based companies from around the world and an incubator of start-up enterprises, has  started handing keys to tenants to commence their fitouts, a park official said.

“The first companies to establish centres at the park will be EADS, ExxonMobil, Microsoft, Shell and Total,” said QSTP official Ben Figgis. 
“Meanwhile planning commenced on General Electric’s dedicated buildings. These and other companies will be undertaking research, training and technology commercialisation at their centres in the science park.”
With QSTP at Qatar Foundation are campuses of Carnegie Mellon, Texas A&M, Weill Cornell and other leading universities.
To support tenants’ R&D activities, QSTP provides premises, services, and support programmes.
The premises one can now see with the eye comprise a business incubator for start-up technology ventures, and a pair of research-friendly buildings where corporations are locating labs and offices. They will open in early 2008.
Overseeing developments at QSTP is its managing director, Dr Eulian Roberts. He has previously set up and managed several science parks in the UK.
QSTP permits high-value, low-volume manufacturing.  The QSTP authority manages the free-trade zone under which its tenants are licensed and registered. It is also delivering programmes that support technology commercialisation, for example a “seed” investment fund and entrepreneurship training.
The Proof of Concept Fund provides grants for researchers in Qatar to demonstrate the technical and market viability of their innovations. It has been operational since last year. QSTP also has under preparation a $30 million investment fund, called the New Enterprise Fund, which will provide eqity capital to start-up technology companies at Qatar Science & Technology Park. It will commence in 2008 and investments will range from $500,000 to $3 million.
“So far we have received several applications for the POCF but no projects have been approved yet. We hope to make the first approvals before the end of the year. The funding dedicated is $12 million over five years,” said Figgis.
While the “anchor tenants” of Qatar Science & Technology Park are EADS, ExxonMobil, GE, Microsoft, Shell and Total, several Qatari companies have come aboard such as iHorizons and Q-CERT. The idea is that the companies collaborate with the universities at Education City, such as Carnegie Mellon and Texas A&M to grow a knowledge-based economy in Qatar.
In September 2007 QSTP started the Executive Entrepreneurship Certificate Programme in conjunction with Carnegie Mellon University. It is a one-year, part-time course that aims to give people the skills and contacts to build start-up technology companies in Qatar. It has been a great success so far, heavily over subscribed, and the professors are experienced and successful entrepreneurs themse-lves.
Some 43 men and women of various nationalities, among them Qatari, Indian, Australian and European, took their first steps in developing business ideas.
Some of the students on the course have an idea for a successful business but have faced problems in starting up in Qatar due to inexperience or lack of funding and support. The course is taught by Dr S Thomas Emerson, a respected educator and a recognised entrepreneur himself, having been bestowed with the title of Entrepreneur of the Year in the US.
Among the significant developments of 2007 was the announcement from ConocoPhillips that it will establish a Water Sustainability Centre that will examine ways of treating and using by-product water from oil production and refining operations, as well as other projects relating to industrial and municipal water sustainability.  The centre will be located at QSTP at Education City, Doha, Qatar.
When companies produce oil and gas, water often is produced along with the oil - on average, worldwide, roughly three barrels of water for every barrel of oil, estimates ConocoPhillips. Impurities usually make the by-product water unusable without costly treatment. 
ConocoPhillips aims to develop more efficient and cost effective treatment technologies at its Qatar Water Sustainability Centre.  Proposed uses for treated water could include crop irrigation, livestock watering, wildlife habitats, and industrial cooling, potentially leaving more fresh-water available for domestic use.
ConocoPhillips plans to invest $25 million in the centre over its first 5-7 years.  The centre will conduct research and develop and test technologies relating to water production and management.  It will be designated as ConocoPhillips’ worldwide centre for water technologies, disseminating findings to the company’s global operations as well as to local government and industry partners.
 Dr Roberts said, “Becoming a knowledge-based economy means applying human ingenuity and technology to solve industrial challenges.  This is at the core of the Water Sustainability Centre, and we welcome ConocoPhillips as a valuable member of the knowledge environment at Qatar Science & Technology Park.”
ConocoPhillips is a major participant in Qatar’s oil and gas industry as the key foreign partner in the Qatargas 3 project, which is expected to produce 7.8 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas annually beginning in 2009.