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”.

QNRF has announced the winners the 17th cycle of its Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP). Out of 126 research proposals submitted by student teams from seven universities across Qatar, 37 were awarded grants.

QNRF was privileged to host a presentation given by Mr Jesse Ausubel on the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO). In 2009 Mr. Ausubel, Director of the Program for the Human Environment at The Rockefeller University in New York City, helped initiate the Deep Carbon Observatory to search for the secrets of volcanoes and diamonds, the roots of oil & gas and the origins and limits of life

Themed ‘Education for the Future of Qatar’, the fourth public Research Outcome Seminar (ROS) focused on the discipline of Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities Research and saw a selection of QNRF-funded researchers share the results and benefits of their completed projects in the field of education.

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.

Dr Abdul Sattar Al-Taie, Executive Director of QNRF and Chair of the NPRP-EP Committee, recently presided over the latest batch of submissions and here he throws light on the application procedure, which differs somewhat form the standard online submission procedure associated with the NPRP.

In June QNRF hosted the third in the series of quarterly Qatar Foundation Research & Development (QF R&D) Research Outcome Seminars (ROS), this time highlighting four innovative research projects in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Held in-house, at QNRF’s offices, the public seminars offer a window into the world of research as investigators are encouraged to present the output of their work in clear, layman’s language that the man-in-the street should be able to understand.

QNRF recently endorsed a declaration of principles and actions entitled ‘Statement of Principles and Actions for shaping the Future: Supporting the Next Generation of Researchers’, this action plan - formulated by the Global Research Council - sets guidelines and goals that hopefully will continue to promote socially responsible research amongst the research community.

Middle-school students (aged 11 to 15) from 10 schools in Qatar recently competed in a unique science event called the Science Challenge. Organised by QNRF and the Supreme Education Council (SEC), and held at the Hamad bin Khalifa University Student Centre, the students were challenged to construct a bridge using the scientific principles they had learned in the classroom.

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.

During the last quarter, QNRF has launched two new funding programs designed to plug the gap between its Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) and the Junior Scientist Research Experience Program (JSREP).

QNRF bid for the right to host the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Regional Meeting of the Global Research Council (GRC) at its Doha headquarters in December.

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.