QNRF recognizes Qatar’s outstanding research projects at Annual Forum

More than 80 research projects focused on tackling Qatar’s most pressing issues have been awarded funding under Qatar National Research Fund’s National Priorities Research Program.

The awards were made at its 11th Annual Forum, held at Qatar National Convention Centre, where five proposals from its Path towards Precision Medicine funding track – a collaboration with fellow Qatar Foundation (QF) member the Qatar Genome Programme – also received grants, and an audience comprising members of Qatar’s academic and research community was briefed about Qatar National Research Fund’s (QNRF) achievements and progress over the year.

Dr. Abdul Sattar Al-Taie, Executive Director of QNRF, said: “Over the past 13 years, QNRF has served as the main driver of research in Qatar.

“Through our various funding programs and initiatives, we have helped build significant human capacity in research at all levels and across all sectors in Qatar, nurtured and supported a research culture, and played a major role in establishing the foundations of physical research infrastructure locally.”

Dr. Al-Taie emphasized QNRF’s role in moving the value chain of research from input to output and technological and societal impact. “We have helped in the development of innovative technological solutions and public policies which have potential to create global impact,” he said.

“A good portion of QNRF-funded projects have now started producing intellectual property rights, including provisional patents and invention disclosures.”

During the event, 88 research proposals from 15 institutions across Qatar were awarded under the 12th cycle of the National Priorities Research Program-Standard (NPRP-S), and the winners of the Best Research Image Outcome (BRIO) competition and Best Research Office were also announced. Dr. Nayef Alyafei from Texas A&M University at Qatar, a QF partner university, won the BRIO competition for his image titled ‘Micro Structure of Peridotite’, while Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar was named the Best Research Office for this year.

Dr. Hisham A. Sabir, Director – Technical, QNRF, also highlighted the outcomes of a recent survey conducted by the funding agency to measure the impact of its flagship program, NPRP. Meanwhile, Dr. Nefissa Chakroun, QNRF’s Intellectual Property and Innovation Program Manager, briefed the audience on the intellectual property rights generated by QNRF-funded programs and its goal of strengthening Qatar’s patent registration mechanism and the framework of its intellectual property laws to support local researchers and engineers.

QNRF offers a range of funding and capacity building initiatives as part of its commitment to helping develop Qatar’s human capital and strengthening the nation’s research and development infrastructure, in order to raise the country’s global research, development, and innovation profile. To learn more about these programs, please visit www.qnrf.org.