Qatar University (QU) has recorded as much as 250% growth in research programmes over the last five years, it was announced yesterday.
The national university undertook over 450 research projects collaborating with 319 institutions around the world during this period.
“QU has taken a tremendous lead in research collaboration and output and it is evident in the recent ranking of the university from various agencies,” acting vice president for research Dr Darwish al-Emadi said.
“The university has been ranked number one in international collaboration in the Times Higher Education (THE) Mena Universities Ranking and number four in the Mena region for research,” he pointed out.
QU has become one of the fastest growing institutions for research in the region with a compound annual growth rate of 36.45%, based on a 2015 comparative study, according to the official.
Research activities of QU are focused on four major areas. “They are energy, environment and resources sustainability; social changes and identity; population, health and wellness; and information and communication technologies. There are several research programmes in these sectors, focusing on the grand challenges of the country.”
Nayla Ahmad M al-Thani, assistant director, Office of Academic Research, observed that the quality of the research work of QU was above the international rating.  
“The international average for quality of research metrics is one and QU has achieved 1.25. Our researchers’ published work has increased by approximately 246.7% 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. The collaboration in research has resulted in 3,200 co-authored publications.
“Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) is the main funding source for Qatar University. QU’s budget for current active grants and contracts was $141.5mn of which $48mn was awarded in 2015, with QNRF providing 94% of the funding,” she said.
Al-Emadi pointed out that several private organisations also supported QU by providing funding for research through different ways.
“Over the past eight years, QU has received about $22.7mn from other agencies for its research activities. QU continues in its efforts to create an enabling environment of research excellence by providing full support to its research community.”
“These organisations support QU by establishing a chair at different colleges of the university. They also support and sponsor many of the programmes of the university. In addition, some companies approach us by asking for assistance in tackling certain issues, they come across in their activities,” he said.
“In the course of the last eight years, around 1,200 students benefited from student grants, and about 800 students were supported through university, start-up, and summer grants with QU spending approximately $14mn on these grants.”
Nayla al-Thani observed that many students have been the beneficiaries of the Undergraduate Research Experience Programme (UREP) of QNRF.
A total of 1,668 undergraduate students have benefited from the UREP in last eight years. QU receives 55 UREP grants per year totalling approximately $1.9mn.