Research Matters

Take a moment, sit down, observe your surroundings, and try to think how everything is working around and inside you. Think about how billions of neurons are activated as you mind floods with questions and as you try to find the answers. What goes on in an engine of a car as it speeds by? Why is it more humid today? How did the languages we talk in develop over the years? These questions can go on and on.

Along with being active architects of the research infrastructure in Qatar, Qatar National Research Fund is one of the major forces leading local capacity development since its inception. We began with one capacity building program in our portfolio, the Undergraduate Research Experience Program, and over the years, have added several programs and opportunities that benefit our students. Students can count on QNRF’s support from as early as their K-12 years all the way to the early career stage and even when they have established themselves as experienced researchers, academics, and scientists.

We recently held the fifth edition of the Best Representative Image of an Outcome (BRIO) Competition, a unique platform for our researchers to share the artistic side of their research and promote visual communication of science and research outcomes. This year, a total of eight images were shortlisted for the competition. Members of Qatar’s academic and research community and public were invited to pick the winning image in an online voting campaign that ran for almost two weeks.

After weeks of preparation, highly impressive student-led presentations, and intense judging sessions, another successful edition of QNRF’s Annual Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) Competition comes to an end. Let’s hear from the winners of the oral presentations category this year about their research projects, their UREP experience, and their advice for aspiring student researchers.