DOHA: Qatar University (QU) has become one of the fastest growing institutions for research in the region with a compound annual growth rate of 36.45 percent in terms of research projects and publications.
QU is recording remarkable returns on its investment in research with its recent ranking as No 1 in international collaboration in the Times Higher Education (THE) MENA Universities Ranking, said QU Acting Vice-President for Research, Dr Darwish Al Emadi (pictured).
QU achieved successes and undertook over 450 research projects with 319 collaborators, which have resulted in 3,200 co-authored publications from 1,093 collaborating institutes, he said told a press conference held yesterday to release the annual report of QU Office of Academic Research.
Assistant Director Nayla Ahmad M Al Thani underlined the office’s research outcomes last year. “Our researchers’ published work has increased by about 246.7 percent based on the field-weighted citation impact, which is a quality metric maintaining a value of 1.17 in 2014 and 1.25 in 2015,” Dr Al Emadi said.
He said the achievements highlight QU’s commitment to Qatar National Vision 2030 and to the country’s ambitions towards a knowledge-based economy.
He said QU’s budget for current grants and contracts is $141.5m of which $48m was awarded in 2015, with Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) providing 94 percent of the funding.
“In the past eight years, around 1,200 students benefited from grants, and about 800 were supported through university, start-up and summer grants with QU spending about $14m.”
Dr Al Emadi said QU researchers were provided with funding from other government agencies. “In the past eight years, QU received about $22.7m from agencies other than QNRF in support of its research activities”, he said, adding, “QU continues efforts to create an enabling environment that engenders research excellence by providing full support to its research community, especially with funding opportunities. This highlights QU’s role as the first national institution of higher education committed to advancing quality higher education and research excellence in Qatar and the region.”
Nayla Ahmad said “QU’s main source of funding is QNRF, receiving through the National Priorities Research Programme $331m in support of 414 research projects conducted by 1,514 key investigators, with an average of 62 percent of the lead principal investigators from QU. “The process involved a research support team of 1,734 and collaborations with 319 institutes, research centres and companies worldwide.
“In the past eight years, 1,668 undergraduate students from QU benefited from the QNRF Undergraduate Research Experience Program. QU receives 55 UREP grants a year of about $1.9m.”The Peninsula
