DOHA: The Qatar University (QU) was awarded the highest number of grants by the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), a member of Qatar Foundation Research and Development (QF R&D) for the eight cycles of its flagship National Priorities Research Program (NPRP).
QU received grants for 57 proposals out of the total grants of 120 for research proposals from 17 institutions, at the seventh annual forum of QNRF held yesterday.
Texas A&M University at Qatar received grants for 23 proposals, and Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar awarded for eight. The remaining 32 research proposals were awarded across a number of other institutions in the country, including Hamad Medical Corporation, Ministry of Environment, Gulf Organisation for Research and Development and Silatech. Of the 120 of awarded proposals, aligned with the four pillars of the Qatar National Research Strategy, 38 per cent fall under energy and environment, 27 per cent under health and life sciences, 20 per cent under social sciences, arts and humanities, and the remaining 15 per cent under computer science and information and communications technology.
The increasing creativity and originality evident in the proposals we receive year-on-year is a testament to the success of our programme, and by supporting work of direct relevance to Qatar and the region, QNRF continues to play a major role in the country’s journey towards a knowledge-based economy,” said Dr Abdul Sattar Al Taie, Executive Director of QNRF.
Additionally, two new funding programmes were introduced by QNRF at the seventh Annual Forum. The Grand Challenges Research Program (GCRP) will be the first by QNRF to focus on a specific theme of research, ‘The Path towards Personalised Medicine’ which will be jointly funded by Qatar Biobank.
The second new funding programme is called the Early Career Research Award (ECRA) and aims to develop Qatar’s local scientific talent pool by providing professional research experience to Qatari and Qatar-born scientists who have recently embarked upon their research career.
Best researchers from the previous NPRP cycles were also recognised for their outstanding work, and received awards at the seventh annual forum with Texas A&M University at Qatar winning the three categories. The Best Researcher Award for 2015 was granted to Dr Haitham Abu-Rub in recognition of his impactful research outcome. The Best Research Project Award for 2015 was won by the project entitled ‘Chaotic Dynamics of Distributed Parameter Systems Containing Nonlinearities’, led by Dr Tingwen Huang. Finally, Texas A&M University at Qatar was also acknowledged as the Best Research Office in 2015 for the organisation’s excellent punctuality and compliance during pre-funding and post-funding phases.
The Peninsula
