The publications listed below represent some highlights of recently published articles in peer-reviewed, academic journals by researchers funded by QNRF grants:

Dr. Michael Reksulak is the Director for Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities at the Qatar National Research Fund. He is also the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Melton Foundation, which is the only global Fellowship program that unites a network of more than 450 Fellows to act as global citizens addressing local and global challenges throughout their lives.

QNRF and the Doha International Family Institute (DIFI), have recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding and announced their collaboration for the launch of a new QNRF-DIFI joint-funded research grant focused on the Arab family.

Called “Osra”, which means family in Arabic, it will assist in the development of evidence-based policies and programs to promote the well-being of the Arab family by looking at marriage and family structure, parenting, family-work balance and family laws and practices across the region.

Dr Abdul Sattar Al-Taie, Executive Director at QNRF said “We are delighted to collaborate with DIFI on this new research program since the Osra grant addresses an area that has, in a large part, been left unexplored in the Arab region”.

Hydrates are a big problem in the oil and gas processing industries. Hydrates are ice-like crystalline materials which use the unusual environment within a pipe (high pressure and low temperature) to form on the inside of the pipes used to carry hydrocarbons. They are usually composed of water molecules and ‘guest’ vapour, such as methane. These hydrate solids grow to such a size that they impede and ultimately block the flow of oil or LNG.

A group working at Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) and led by Dr. Ioannis Economou, has gone back to basics to try and solve this problem, by using computational molecular dynamics. Theoretical concepts are applied to various molecules and mixtures of molecules, then supercomputers predict how these molecules and mixtures may perform at various temperatures and pressures within a pipe.

It will come as no surprise to anyone who regularly shops in Qatar’s supermarkets to hear that over 90% of the food on the shelves is imported from abroad, making the country extremely vulnerable to price hikes, embargoes, and supply disruptions. Taking control of the food supply chain is known as ‘food security’, and it’s one of the most important challenges facing Qatar in the coming years.

That’s the view of Dr. Samsul Huda of the University of Western Sydney, Australia, who is head of a multidisciplinary international team examining how best to use Qatar’s resources to maximize domestic crop productivity within Qatar, but also looking at land purchasing and contract farming in resource-rich countries in temperate and tropical climates in Africa, Asia, and Australasia.