Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) has awarded grants to 120 research proposals across 17 institutions in Qatar for the eighth cycle of its flagship National Priorities Research Programme (NPRP).
Announced at the seventh QNRF Annual Forum held at the Qatar National Convention Centre yesterday, the top three results saw Qatar University awarded for 57 proposals, Texas A&M University at Qatar (Tamuq) 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.
Best researchers from the previous NPRP cycles were also recognised at the event and received awards at the seventh Annual Forum with Tamuq winning in 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 titled ‘Chaotic Dynamics of Distributed Parameter Systems Containing Nonlinearities’, led by Dr Tingwen Huang. Finally, Tamuq was also acknowledged as the Best Research Office in 2015 for the organisation’s excellent punctuality and compliance during the pre-funding and post-funding phases.
Dr Abdul Sattar al-Taie, executive director of QNRF, said: “The growing number of applications to our flagship programme shows the growing interest in research within the local community. 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.”
Of the 120 of awarded proposals, aligned with the four pillars of the Qatar National Research Strategy, 38% fall under energy and environment, 27 % under health and life sciences, 20 % under social sciences, arts and humanities, and the remaining 15 % under computer science and information and communications technology.
The 8th NPRP cycle received 869 eligible proposals, an 8% increase on the number of applications from the previous cycle. The awarded proposals will engage 120 lead principal investigators, including several Qatari nationals.
Dr Abdulnasser al-Ansari, QNRF deputy executive director commented: “I am personally pleased to participate in the distribution of QNRF’s prestigious annual awards during this forum. These awards were competitively granted based on research output and compliance with QNRF rules. It is remarkable to see the performance of the nominated candidates during the past year and how close and competitive the finalists were with each other.”
“Each successive cycle of the NPRP has seen an increasing number of projects addressing one of Qatar’s Grand Challenges defined in 2013,” said Noor al-Merekhi, programme manager of the NPRP at QNRF. “In this cycle, the winning projects focus on 11 of the 12 Grand Challenges.”
Researchers from Texas A&M University at Qatar receiving the award
