The Second BNRS Survey is launched

Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) today released the second Biannual National Research Survey (BNRS) results, representing data collected for the past two years starting from January 1st 2008 until December 31st 2009. The second BNRS Survey follows the inaugural survey, which included records covering the period between 1970 and 2007. 

Records for the BNRS database have witnessed a dramatic increase in the last two years, owing to the employment of systematic and rigorous techniques and relying on four sources to capture the maximum data. Research Offices at universities inside the Education City, as well as Qatar University have regularly supplied records for the BNRS. The BNRS team have also established links with government departments to obtain their records on books, theses and articles written by their staff. The third source used for data collection was a BNRS link on QNRF's website. This link allowed individuals whose publications have not been captured to send their records directly to BNRS team. The fourth and last important source was the Web of Science through which QNRF has setup an alert system to automatically notify the BNRS team of any research or academic literature funded by QNRF, or published by a Qatari institution or someone who lives in Qatar. 

As a result, 3,300 new records in both Arabic and English languages have been added to the database. This represents a significant increase of the records held in the BNRS database. The addition of these new records to the existing 4,600 records means that the BNRS database now contains close to 8,000 records in both Arabic and English. 

Announcing the launch of a new search solution for the BNRS database, Dr. Abdul Sattar Al-Taie, the Executive Director for QNRF, pointed out "What makes the new search solution so special is the fact that it has been developed in-house by QNRF IT team and it allows easy access to all BNRS records." Dr. Al-Taie explained "As a result of our improved search solution, QNRF will no longer wait for two years to update its BNRS records as they , can be added periodically which will, in turn, enable the researchers and the public to access scientific research, theses and books about Qatar in a very short period after being published." Dr. Abdul Sattar Al-Taie added that "QNRF is committed to continue improving its BNRS activities and is working with Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals BQFJ to achieve the goal of making the full text of the records available to the public within the next two years."

On this occasion, Dr. Al-Taie calls upon the public in the State of Qatar in general, and researchers in particular, to use this rich database and invites them to send details of their publications via the BNRS electronic link so the information can be made available to the public.