On Wednesday, October 2nd, QNRF, in collaboration with Qatar’s Supreme Education Council (SEC) announced the winners of the latest cycle of its Secondary School Research Experience Program (SSREP). Eighty-one students, including 39 Qataris, were awarded prizes of up to QR 5,000 each for 48 research projects on a wide variety of topics, during a ceremony held at Education City’s Awsaj Academy. SSREP, a collaboration between QNRF and the SEC, is aimed at spreading a culture of research in the early stages of a young student’s education and is specifically designed to provide secondary school students with research experience.

Formerly the Director-Technical, QNRF, Dr. Abdulnasser Al-Ansari was recently promoted to the position of QNRF's Deputy Executive Director. He holds a PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Miami, Florida, USA, with a focus on biometrics, computer vision and pattern recognition as well as signal and image processing. Before joining QNRF he was a Naval Engineering Officer with the Qatari Emiri Naval Forces. Dr. Al-Ansari possesses a wealth of skills in leadership from various positions at the navy. His past research involvement in graduate school gained him experience in research collaboration, peer reviewing, proposal preparations and fund management. He is a senior Associate Editor of the Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems.

Dr. Wyatt R. (Rory) Hume is Executive Director of Education, Training and Development, Research and Development Division, Qatar Foundation. His mandate is to help promote human capability in all areas related to the research and development needs of Qatar using the resources of the Foundation.

QNRF is relatively unusual amongst QF entities in that it has its own IT-support function responsible for building and maintaining the online submission and in-house grant management systems, that QNRF relies on to handle its activities. Behind the scenes, QNRF’s team of seven highly-qualified and experienced system architects, developers and software engineers are constantly monitoring users’ feedback and then reviewing, amending and improving the systems and processes to enhance the overall user-experience. As expected, such activities should lead to the evolution of greater efficiencies and it should therefore be no surprise that the team recently announced a much better organized back-office menu layout, specifically designed to improve navigation to the most heavily user-accessed functions.

Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) has launched a new funding program designed to support research-based PhD studies in Qatar by both supporting outstanding local students and attracting international students to study in the country, with an emphasis on distinguished Qatari students.

Over the past few decades, the Internet has removed a huge barrier between people and massive amounts of information. Every day, more and more becomes available, to anyone, anywhere, anytime, with the click of a mouse or the touch of a screen. And yet just as this barrier roots itself in history, a new one reveals itself more than ever. Language.

The reasons behind moving Qatar towards a knowledge-based economy are clear—natural resources are limited, and an educated population would enrich any society. Yet a big part of reaching this goal involves clever and sustainable teaching techniques at the secondary-school level. This is especially the case around science disciplines since they are challenging yet vital components to progress.

The argument of nature versus nurture is nothing new. And it can be summed up in one question: Why is it that someone can smoke and drink and live long into old age and another person can lead a healthy life, exercise and then die of a heart attack at the age of 40? This question is based on extreme examples, but they are still non-fiction, and they cause people to believe that they have limited control over their health. However, researchers in the broad field of personalized medicine are working to change this mindset by studying the mechanics of diseases at the molecular level so that treatments can be more effective on a case-by-case basis.

 Genetic research has evolved from mapping the entire human genome to deciphering areas along it that relate to a specific disease. The next phase involves research localized to specific parts of the world in order to discover patterns in heritage and genetic susceptibilities to disease. A group of such projects based on the local Qatari population has so far yielded results that shine light on the specific ancestral background of the local population and also points to areas of the Qatari genome that could potentially allow prediction and intervention. These projects are led by Dr. Ronald Crystal, Chairman of Genetic Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Over the years, QNRF has been a key agent for change within the research community - both locally and internationally. This positive driving force is now helping more people than ever and we expect this investment in human capital to reap rewards for the country in the near future.