Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), a centre of Qatar Foundation Research and Development, has awarded prizes and certificates to the best research projects for 2013 under the Undergraduate Research Experience Programme (UREP) .Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) won the first position for its project, “Typology and Credibility of Gulf Co-operation Council Internet Health Websites”. The project examined ways of improving consumer e-health websites in Qatar.The other projects in the competition focused on the fields of engineering and technology, natural sciences, medical sciences, and social sciences and humanities.Finalists included a team from Texas A&M University at Qatar, who worked on a novel, environment-friendly and inexpensive method of degassing oil and drilling fluids using ultrasonic waves to remove gas bubbles from liquid systems.Another project from WCMC-Q that made it to the finals studied the role of two different cellular components to see how they affect the overall growth of cells. A Qatar University (QU) team studied the effects of garden thyme as a therapeutic agent for breast cancer. Another team from QU studied the relationship between cultural misunderstandings in business and the quality of customer service to help companies improve their dealings with clients in cosmopolitan societies. Faisal Alsuwaidi, president of Research and Development at Qatar Foundation, said: “Students are the building blocks that will sustain Qatar’s future knowledge-based economy. We will continue supporting students in Qatar as part of our commitment to transform the nation into a global centre of research excellence.”QNRF executive director Dr Abdul Sattar al-Taie said, “At QNRF, we recognise the important role and influence of a student’s university experience. It is precisely for this reason that we decided, in 2006, to begin promoting research and providing support to undergraduate students in Qatar through UREP.” Every year, the top 25% of completed projects are shortlisted for the UREP competition. This year, 27 projects completed in 2013 qualified for an initial QNRF panel review. The top five scoring projects in the initial review were chosen for public oral presentations where they were presented to a panel of judges. The remaining teams were given the chance to present their work as posters, which were displayed on the day of the competition, and competed for first, second and third places in the poster category.