Research Matters

Qatar National Research Fund is one of the first and most important players of Qatar’s research, development, and innovation ecosystem (RDI). Since our founding, Qatar has achieved remarkable progress in building an RDI ecosystem and is set on the path to more successes as we move forward to realize the QNV 2030 and QRDI Strategy 2030 to help solve Qatar’s national challenges and make the most out of its RDI opportunity. In the field of research, while some of its outcomes are immediate, its true impact and contribution towards the development of Qatar can be understood and valued in the long term. Even in a relatively short period spanning a decade and a half since the founding of QNRF, our researchers have made impressive strides.

Qatar National Research Fund, in collaboration with the Qatar Genome Program, launched the first cycle of the Path towards Precision Medicine in 2015 to support genomic research in Qatar. Let's learn more about this call and its contribution towards building an impactful precision medicine infrastructure in Qatar by Dr. Sadim Jawhar, who is currently working as a joint funding program manager at QNRF.

Liver-related diseases reap the lives of around two million people around the globe every year. Half of these deaths are related to complications caused by liver cirrhosis, and the other half are due to hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Moreover, the liver is also a hub for metastasis – the spread of cancer cells – originating from adjacent organs such as the pancreas and stomach.

This month, we sit down with FameLab Qatar 2021 winner, Fatima Omar, who represented Qatar at the international finals at the Cheltenham Festival in the United Kingdom held virtually last November. Fatima is a Physics & Astrophysics undergraduate student in her final year at the University of Birmingham in the UK. She is a resident of Qatar, where she completed her schooling.