Dubai, February 28, 2022 - The award ceremony for the winners of the second edition of the Pitch@Gov Challenge was held on the 28th of February. The event was graced by H.E. Younis Al Khoori Undersecretary at the Ministry of Finance UAE and H.E. Huda AlHashimi, Deputy Minister of Cabinet Affairs for Strategic Affairs, who presented the awards to the winners and certificates to the other participants of the challenge. The competition, launched by MBRCGI and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) through MBRIF, is set to become be a sustainable government initiative aimed at fostering collaboration between government entities, private sector organisations, entrepreneurs, and innovators to promote a culture of innovation in the country. The competition witnessed more than 100 project entries submitted and 23 of them were short-listed to present at the pitch day. The winners were chosen by a jury of experts from MBRCGI, MBRIF, EHS, and RTA and were awarded the opportunity to join the MBRIF Accelerator, as well as an initial funding of AED 30,000 each. Abdulaziz Waqar won the award in the healthcare category for the innovative project “Mashya”, which provides a tool for evaluating movement and “gait” using the latest technology and AI and aims to rehabilitate patients and improve healthcare inside and outside the hospital. Saif bin Abboud also won in the same category for the “Healing Clouds” project, which is a mental health system that enables individuals to access psychological support while preserving their privacy, by entering the world of metaphysics. Mohammed Al-Amin Kabbashi won in the transportation category, for his project “Sadeed: Smart Parking”, which is a system for monitoring vehicles in the parking environment by a small-sized, low-energy and cost-effective parking card attached to vehicles that facilitates the process of detecting violations, payment, support and automating parking. Hamid Al Balushi also won the same category for his “Zayed Tree” project, which connects every plate number issued by the RTA to a tree, in order to participate in supporting climate change initiatives, as the tree will create help increase the number of tress in the UAE. The challenges posed by the second edition of the Pitch@GOV initiative align with the goals of the ‘We the UAE 2031’ vision to make the UAE one of the best 10 cities globally when it comes to quality of life. The EHS presented challenges in promoting healthy lifestyles, proactive emergency monitoring, and enhancing healthcare integration, while the RTA challenged innovators to find customer-centric solutions in the transportation sector, focusing on customer happiness and reducing carbon emissions.