Former fellows instrumental in forming a new partnership between their organizations

One of the goals of the IBK Fellowship is to create a strong support system which nourishes the research careers of our fellows long after their time at MIT. As a global community, our partnerships and support systems are especially important as we work together to fight COVID-19 so we are happy to share this recent good news of a new partnership forming.

Two former IBK Fellows, Dr. Sufana AlMashhadi, Director of the Innovation Center at King Fahad Medical City and Dr. Areej Al-Wabil, Executive Director of Intellectual Property Enablement at the Saudi Authority for IP have been instrumental in forming a new partnership between their organizations.

According to Dr. Sufana, her organization’s willingness to take on the status quo means that KFMC now has a “world standard practice of IP protection.” The first step was a corporate survey that “revealed that employees are not comfortable disclosing their innovative ideas due to lack of intellectual property policies.” With this knowledge in hand, Dr. Sufana and her team connected with Dr. Areej at SAIP and helped forge the partnership that is creating an environment for greater trust, collaboration and innovation.

We’re proud of Dr. Areej and Dr. Sufana who are fostering an environment where innovation can flourish.