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The Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) will launch a total of 10 or 11 research funding programmes in the next five years, executive director Dr Abdul Sattar al-Taie revealed yesterday.
“Grand Challenges Research Programme, Small Business Innovation Award, and Post Doctoral Research Award are among the upcoming initiatives,” he told the fifth Annual Forum of QNRF while giving a presentation on ‘The Next 5 Years: Research Forward.’
Qatar Research Excellence Chairs Programme, Middle School Research Experience Programme, Graduate Students Research Awards, Research Infrastructure Programme, and International Collaboration Research Programme are also among the proposed programmes.
“Qatar Foundation’s Research and Development enterprise has the vision to make the country a leading centre for research and development excellence and innovation, while QNRF will enable the transformation to a knowledge-based economy,” Dr al-Taie said.
QNRF will advance knowledge and education by supporting original, competitively selected research in all fields of sciences with emphasis on the four pillars of the Qatar National Research Strategy (QNRS), such as Energy and environment; Computer Science and ICT; Health; Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities.
QNRF is providing funding opportunities for researchers at all levels, from students to professionals, in the private, public, and academic sectors. The core values are transparency, equal opportunity, learn to improve, and commitment to excellence.
“The phase one of QNRF was launched in 2006 with a view to creating research culture, building human capital and research infrastructure, creating international visibility, generating publications and inventions disclosure and focused on input and output.
“The second phase will see aligning funding programmes and organisational chart, addressing Qatar’s most pressing grand challenges, providing educational and training programmes, and dissemination of results and commercialisation with more focus on output and impact.
The current funding programmes of QNRF are the Undergraduate Research Experience Programme (UREP), National Priorities Research Programme (NPRP), Junior Scientist Research Experience Programme (JSREP), Secondary School Research Experience Programme (SSREP), and National Priorities Research Programme Exceptional (NPRP EP).
Launched in 2006, the UREP has a frequency of two cycles per year and awards up to $10,000 per project. The flagship NPRP, introduced in 2007, has one cycle per year, up to $1mn per awarded project, and collaboration between national and international researchers. Including the sixth cycle, the awards of which were announced yesterday, NPRP has issued a funding a $600mn for 650 projects.
The JSREP, launched in 2010, runs two cycles per year and awards up to $300,000 per project. The SSREP, initiated in 2010, has one cycle per year and awards distinguished students and their teachers.
The NPRP EP, introduced in 2011, is ongoing, awards up to $5mn per project and facilitates collaboration between national and international researchers.
“It is also envisaged to develop joint research funding opportunities inside and outside Qatar, enhance the conferences, workshops sponsorship programme, and enhance and build QNRF’s research management capabilities and infrastructure,” Dr al-Taie said.
“During the phase two, QNRF will expand its scope, with several new funding programmes, invest more in grand challenges to focus on Qatar’s pressing needs.”