Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), recently launched this year’s summer internship programmes at its three research institutes: the Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI), the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), and the Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (Qeeri).
The programmes aim to help build national research capacity and attract students to the sciences, offering interns the opportunity to learn directly from industry specialists and work on innovative research projects. Internships run for eight weeks and are tailored to fit each student’s area of interest.
QBRI’s internship programme provides exceptional undergraduate students interested in the field of biological and biomedical science with a research intensive training opportunity. Interns gain practical laboratory research experience under the supervision of distinguished scientists from the institute and are able to select projects to work on in the areas of diabetes, cancer, stem cell research, and neurological disorders.  
Nine interns, four of whom are Qatari nationals, were accepted into QBRI’s programme this year. In addition to gaining research experience, the interns have the opportunity to participate in a series of activities, seminars, and workshops organised by the HBKU institute on topics such as research ethics, career planning, and research poster presentations. In an effort to augment laboratory experience with exposure to the multitude of research resources available in Qatar, QBRI also partnered with Qatar National Library this year to organise a special one-day programme for interns.
At QCRI, the 2016 summer internship programme has been designed to give interns the opportunity to work on research and development projects in the areas of Arabic language technologies, data analytics, social computing, cyber security, distributed systems, and computational science and engineering. QCRI’s internship programme has 35 students this year.
Another six students are participating in the internship programme run by Qeeri. Each student was matched with a research supervisor who helped them develop an individual internship plan in accordance with their background and specific research interests. Interns learn about Qeeri’s work on the country’s energy and water security grand challenges, and have the opportunity to work on an array of projects.
The summer internship programmes at HBKU’s research institutes continue to build talent for Qatar’s developmental objectives as the country moves towards a knowledge-based economy.