QNRF announces programme winners at Annual Research Conference 2016

The announcements came during the Qatar Foundation Annual Research Conference (ARC’16), which was held at the Qatar National Convention Centre last week. QNRF,a member of Qatar Foundation Research and Development (QF R&D),presented grants to 89 research proposals across 18 institutions in Qatar for the ninth cycle of the NPRP. The five awardees of the first cycle ofPPM were also disclosed.

Qatar University was the recipient of nearly 40 per cent of the NPRP awards, with 37 proposals receiving grants. Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) was awarded for 16 proposals, while Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) received awards for 11 proposals. The remaining research proposals were divided across a number of other institutions, including Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q), Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Hamad bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Sidra Medical and Research Center (Sidra),and Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.

Nadine Younes, NPRP Programme Officer at QNRF, indicated that the majority of awarded proposals are aligned with the four pillars of the Qatar National Research Strategy.“The NPRP awarded proposals cover a wide spectrum of research areas such as engineering, water security, cyber security, road safety, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases, and other research areas,” she explained.

QNRF also announced the proposals awarded under one of its most recent initiatives, the first cycle of its new PPM grant, which falls under the Thematic and Grand Challenges Research Program (TGRP). Three proposals were awarded to Sidra, while one went to HMC and one to WCM-Q. The PPM focuses on supporting and advancing research that seeks to provide tailored healthcare for patients based on their genetic profile, to guide decisions made in regard to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease. It aims to achieve this goal through supporting, and benefiting from, the pilot phase of the Qatar Genome Programme (QGP).

Dr Sadim Jawhar, Grand Challenges Programme Officer at QNRF, said: “The PPM represents the first funding initiative in Qatar which aims to support research designed to benefit the development of personalised medicine in Qatar.The awarded proposals covered some of the PPM first cycle specific priority areas of the grant, such as follow-up studies to the Qatar Genome Programme pilot sequencing effort and building definitive genetic and clinical epidemiology databases for Qatar.”

QNRF’s Executive Director, Dr Abdul Sattar Al-Taie, said, “We are proud to announce the awards of the ninth cycle of the NPRP, and the first cycle of PPM, as they represent the continued endeavour of QNRF to support original research that serves the development and building of Qatar’s human capacity, and raising its research profile internationally.”

Commenting on the NPRP and PPM grant announcements, Ms Noor Al-Merekhi, Director of Programmes at QNRF, said: “Year after year, we see the effect that QNRF has on the research culture in Qatar. This year, we see it clearly reflected inthe quality of the awarded proposals.” By investing in cutting-edge research, QNRF is enhancing a scientific culture that supports Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF) in its mission to build Qatar’s innovation and technology capacity, and helping the nation develop into a hub of excellence through QF’s science and research pillar, QF R&D.

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