The conference takes place from 30 January - 1 February , bringing together 18 Nobel Laureates of Peace, Economics, Literature, Physics, Chemistry, Physiology and Medicine alongside distinguished social and political leaders from 32 different countries, to discuss and offer solutions to improve the state of humanity and the world.

It is hosted by Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Culture and The Royal Commission of AlUla Governor His Highness Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan al Saud.

[caption id="attachment_9894" align="alignnone" width="400"] H.H. Prince Badr Bin Abdullah Bin Farhan Al Saud, Minister of Culture and Governor of The Royal Commission for AlUla in conversation with Audrey Azoulay, Director-General, UNESCO at the HEGRA Conference for Nobel Laureates which took place in AlUla in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. © Hegra Conference of Nobel Laureates 2020. (Supplied)[/caption]

For centuries, AlUla has been the place where people from all religions and different cultures have gathered, to think, discuss and exchange ideas.

In this spirit, the Hegra Conference is impact and solution-driven, and the discussions aim to conclude in the development of clear-cut solutions in regards to the future of education, health, agriculture and economics.

Outcomes and recommendations from previous gatherings include the need for convening a global conference on world debt, pooling global AIDS research, and the creation of the Middle East Science Fund (MESF).

Previous editions of the conference focused on a wide variety of complex issues, such as the role of education in combating terrorism, non-proliferation, poverty, economic empowerment, culture and the impact of globalisation on societies around the world.

This year’s theme, Transmission: A Shared Heritage, examines how the transmission of ideas is a fundamental principle not only of any civilisation, but of humanity as a whole.

[caption id="attachment_9898" align="alignnone" width="400"] “We have to tell the world that the time to just continue is over. Change or we will end. How much time is left to us? “ Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Laureate & Founder, Grameen Bank, speaks at the Hegra Conference of Nobel Laureates in AlUla, KSA. © Hegra Conference of Nobel Laureates 2020. (Supplied)[/caption][caption id="attachment_9897" align="alignnone" width="400"] Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Laureate & Founder, Grameen Bank, speaks at the Hegra Conference of Nobel Laureates in AlUla, KSA. © Hegra Conference of Nobel Laureates 2020. (Supplied)[/caption]

As the site of the 2020 Hegra Conference of Nobel Laureates, and in line with Vision 2030, AlUla is committed to developing new industry and empowering women and young people to create new businesses, in a sustainable model and with an environmentally friendly philosophy.

Amr AlMadani, CEO of the Royal Commission for AlUla said: “We hope that our distinguished attendees will be inspired and stimulated in their debates at Saudi Arabia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, Hegra. AlUla has served as a crossroads for civilisations; a place where ideas and innovation have been debated for thousands of years.”

“In keeping with the conference theme of transmission, we are actively reinventing the cultural landscape of AlUla as nature and the arts come together. Today we’re convening some of the world’s greatest thinkers in a contemporary place in an ancient land: for discovery, intellectual expression and cultural exchange that can bridge the past to the future,” AlMadani added.

Richard Attias, Executive Chairman of Richard Attias and Associates, and curator of the conference, commented saying, “Understanding and appreciating our history and culture while sustainably sharing it with new generations is crucial to improving the state of humanity. In these current uncertain times driven by political, economic, cultural, health and social crises around the world, hosting this conference in a thousand years old site will allow us to go back to our roots with humility and humanism.”

[caption id="attachment_9900" align="alignnone" width="400"] Top left (clockwise) Finn Kydland, 2004 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Abdessattar Ben Moussa, 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, Mario J. Molina, 1995 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry & Professor, Leymah Roberta Gbowee, 2011 Nobel Peace Laureate & President, Lord David Trimble, 1998 Nobel Peace Laureate & Member of the House of Lords, Government of the United Kingdom, President Lech Wałęsa, 1983 Nobel Peace Laureate and Former President of Poland, Roger D. Kornberg, 2006 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Winzer Professor in Medicine and Professor of Structural Biology, Stanford University, Kurt Wüthrich, 2002 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, ETH Zürich, Minister Mohamed Fadhel Mahfoudh, 2015 Nobel Peace Laureate, Former Minister of Constitutional Bodies, Civil Society and Human Rights of Tunisia & Former President, Tunisia Order of Lawyers, Sir Christopher Pissarides, 2010 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, LSE – London School of Economics and Political Sciences. Bottom right (anticlockwise) Serge Haroche, 2012 Nobel Laureate in Physics & Professor Emeritus, Collège de France, Gerardus ‘t Hooft, 1999 Nobel Laureate in Physics, Utrecht University, Hassine Abbassi, 2015 Nobel Peace Laureate and Former Secretary General, UGTT - Tunisian General Labour Union, Rigoberta Menchú, 1992 Nobel Peace Laureate & Human Rights Activist, Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation, H.H. Prince Badr Bin Abdullah Bin Farhan Al Saud, Minister of Culture and Governor of The Royal Commission for AlUla, Audrey Azoulay, Director-General, UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Laureate & Founder, Grameen Bank, Ouided Bouchamaoui, 2015 Nobel Peace Laureate and President, Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA), Ambassador Sergio Duarte, 1995 Nobel Peace Laureate, Brazilian Foreign Service, Robert C. Merton, 1997 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, John and Natty McArthur University Professor Emeritus, Harvard University, School of Management Distinguished Professor of Finance, MIT Sloan School of Management, MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology. © Hegra Conference of Nobel Laureates 2020. (Supplied)[/caption]

Royal Commission for AlUla