Nemetschek Group, a global leader in Construction AI and one of the world’s leading software providers for the Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operations (AEC/O) and Media industries, today announced a strategic collaboration with the University of Jeddah, one of Saudi Arabia’s leading higher education institutions, to support the development of digital skills and strengthen the professional readiness of students in engineering, architecture, design and technology-related disciplines.

Through this collaboration, Nemetschek Group and the University of Jeddah will work together on a range of initiatives designed to equip students with the digital competencies and practical experience required to thrive in an increasingly technology-driven building design and planning and infrastructure sector. As part of the agreement, the company will provide educational software licenses from across the Nemetschek Group portfolio, including Bluebeam, Archicad, and Vectorworks, enabling students to gain hands-on experience with the same technologies used by leading architecture, engineering and construction professionals worldwide.

The partnership will also include specialized training programs for academic staff to support the integration of advanced digital tools and industry best practices into classroom instruction. The collaboration further seeks to create pathways from education to employment through training opportunities for qualified students and graduates. In addition, both organizations will explore opportunities to co-develop specialized professional diploma programs, collaborate on curriculum enhancement initiatives, and organize joint workshops that bring together academics, industry experts and practitioners to advance research and knowledge exchange.

“The future of the built environment will depend not only on the technologies we adopt, but on the people who know how to use them effectively. Collaboration between industry and academia is therefore essential to ensuring that students graduate with skills that reflect the realities of a rapidly evolving professional landscape. Through our partnership with the University of Jeddah, we look forward to sharing our industry expertise, supporting faculty and students with relevant digital tools and contributing to the development of curricula that connect academic learning with professional practice,” said Eng. Muayad Simbawa, Managing Director, Middle East, Nemetschek Group.

Her Excellency Dr. Sarah Garamalla Al-Zhrani, Dean of the Design and Art Faculty, said: “At the University of Jeddah, we are committed to preparing a generation of future leaders equipped with the knowledge, skills and practical experience needed to support Saudi Arabia’s ambitious development journey. This partnership with Nemetschek Group reflects our vision of strengthening the connection between academia and industry while ensuring our students have access to leading technologies, innovative learning opportunities and meaningful professional experiences. Together, we aim to equip graduates with the competencies required to contribute to the Kingdom’s future and support the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030.”

The partnership underscores Nemetschek Group’s continued commitment to advancing digital transformation, skills development and knowledge transfer across Saudi Arabia. Building on initiatives such as the Nemetschek Global Academic Program (NGAP), which empowers the next generation of AEC professionals through access to industry-leading technologies and learning opportunities, both organizations aim to contribute to a future-ready workforce capable of supporting the Kingdom’s rapidly evolving construction, infrastructure and technology landscape while advancing the human capital development goals of Saudi Vision 2030.

Holcim UAE and the National Development Consortium (NDC) have signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to drive an integrated approach to large-scale infrastructure across the Emirates. The partnership unites capabilities across the project value chain to deliver more resilient, sustainable, and future-ready developments.

The collaboration reflects a shared commitment to move beyond fragmented project models, where engineering, technology, sustainability, and operations often function in isolation, toward a unified execution framework aligned from day one.

Through the MoU, Holcim UAE and NDC will connect key stakeholders across the development ecosystem, including developers, government authorities, technical specialists, industrial operators, and strategic investors. The partnership will focus on high-impact projects where infrastructure, technology, and long-term operational value intersect.

Anna Griffin said: ““The UAE has built a world-class ecosystem across development, engineering, technology, and infrastructure. The opportunity now is to connect these capabilities more effectively. Our partnership with NDC integrates the right expertise, solutions, and stakeholders from project inception to deliver superior outcomes—an essential step toward building the resilient, sustainable cities of tomorrow.”

The partnership will target several strategic growth areas identified by NDC, including sustainable infrastructure, smart industrial hubs, food security and agriculture, green logistics and warehousing, workforce accommodation, and circular economy assets.

Within this broader ecosystem, Holcim will contribute its expertise in sustainable construction and circularity, anchored by its core philosophy of “Building Cities from Cities.” Through urban mining, Holcim recovers and upcycles construction and demolition waste directly back into new high-performance building materials. This is supported by low-carbon building solutions such as ECOPlanet cement and ECOPact concrete, alongside circular technology platforms including ECOCycle® and GeoCycle. Together, these capabilities enable projects to reduce carbon emissions, improve resource efficiency, and embed true circularity across the built environment.

By embedding sustainability early in the master-planning phase, Holcim UAE and NDC will ensure environmental performance, construction waste processing, and water efficiency are embedded into project design rather than added retrospectively.

For NDC, the partnership supports its vision of developing infrastructure-led, sustainability-driven and execution-focused projects, with a focus on strategic relevance, clear execution logic, commercial and operational viability, measurable sustainability value and potential for scalability.

The alliance directly aligns with the UAE’s broader economic objectives, supporting the Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative and Operation 300bn by demonstrating how value-chain coordination unlocks a more sustainable next generation of national infrastructure.

Through value-chain coordination, the partnership aims to accelerate the delivery of smarter, greener, and more resilient development for the UAE.

Datadobi, a leader in the Data Storage Management Services space, today announced the general availability of Data Access Governance (DAG) within StorageMAP. The new capability gives organizations visibility into who has access to their unstructured data and whether that access aligns with corporate policy. It extends Datadobi’s ability to help enterprises discover, align, and operationalize data across fragmented environments as their intelligence and orchestration layer.

As AI initiatives, cyber threats, and rising data complexity expose the limits of traditional approaches, DAG addresses a critical gap: organizations cannot govern, protect, or extract value from data they cannot see or control. As AI initiatives, cyber threats, and rising data complexity expose the limits of traditional approaches, DAG addresses a critical gap: organizations cannot govern, protect, or extract value from data they cannot see or control.

StorageMAP’s DAG capability gives administrators comprehensive visibility into access permissions across fragmented unstructured data environments. By surfacing who has access to what data, and whether that access aligns with business and security policy. Organizations can detect misaligned permissions, reduce cyber exposure, and enforce governance at scale. This visibility is the essential first stage of the broader DSMS discipline — visibility, understanding, decision, execution — that determines whether organizations can act on their data with confidence.

The introduction of DAG extends StorageMAP’s existing capabilities across data discovery, classification, risk assessment, lifecycle management and AI Data Readiness. Together, these capabilities help organizations to discover what data they have, align it with business value and risk requirements, and operationalize policy-driven action across their environments. The result is unstructured data that supports AI initiatives, strengthens cyber resilience, reduces cost, and drives long-term business value rather than holding it back.

DAG, which was trialed by a number of beta customers, supports a range of enterprise use cases, from protecting sensitive data and reducing breach impact, to maintaining records compliance and managing risk through mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. Early access customers identified a gap in their understanding of which critical datasets were exposed and who could access them, often relying on manual investigation to respond to audits and security incidents.

With Datadobi’s DAG capabilities, these organizations quickly identify overexposed data and validate access controls to proactively strengthen their security posture. For organizations investing in AI, it provides the governance foundation that trusted, well-governed data requires.  And for those subject to data protection regulations (such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS), it delivers the visibility needed to demonstrate that access controls are in place, operating as intended, and aligned with business policy.

“Unstructured data is at the center of every major enterprise challenge right now including AI readiness, cyber resilience, cost management, and regulatory compliance,” said Michael Jack, Co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer for Datadobi. “But organizations cannot address any of those challenges with data they cannot see or control. Data Access Governance gives teams the visibility to understand who has access to what, identify where risk exists, and take action to bring their unstructured data under control. It is a foundational step in turning unstructured data from a source of risk and complexity into a driver of business value.”