Community-Based Research in the UAE - SEWA Case Study

A Global Challenge article [1] presented a call to information systems scholars to redirect their research efforts towards their local communities rather than focusing only on global research and international impact. The authors argue that technology knowledge exchange can contribute to the development of local communities. Responding to this call, this paper presents a case study of collaboration between a higher educational institute and a government authority in order to develop five interdisciplinary projects to meet and serve their innovation department challenges and initiatives. The process of executing those projects is described in attempt to present a recipe of collaboration between higher education and the local community in hopes to contribute to the community-based research. The benefits and challenges are highlighted. Finally, we offer recommendations and general guidelines for conducting similar industry-collaboration projects in the future.