Executive Director’s Message

Resilience in Times of Crisis

How nations respond to adversities in times of crisis determines their future course of success. Following the global outbreak of COVID-19 earlier this year, Qatar has emerged as a country that has dealt with this challenge head-on and built resilience in its people and institutions during the process.

Due to the global spread of the coronavirus, the role of any country’s local human capital and the quality of its local healthcare infrastructure and institutions has been critical in defining the success with which a range of the challenges have been dealt with. Qatar’s efforts to curb the spread of the virus and protect human lives have been successful, as it has maintained one of the lowest fatality rates globally.

A large part of this success is owed to the efforts and resources that have contributed to the building of a thriving research, development, and innovation culture in Qatar. Based on our founding mission, QNRF has for nearly 15 years, enabled research across all sectors to improve life in Qatar, diversify its economy, and build local human capital.

With the same spirit, we launched the Rapid Response Call (RRC) around five months ago, and I am glad to share with you that all the awarded proposals have reported successful and impactful outcomes. These outcomes will help our institutions in Qatar respond even more strongly to the challenges caused by COVID-19 and prepare them better to deal with future emergent situations.

In this edition of Research Matters, we feature three projects from this inaugural RRC, ranging from alternative educational models to visualizing future X-rays and self-disinfecting gloves, to showcase some of the innovative solutions that transpired from them.

Finally, I would like to inform you that, this month, we also announced the outcome of the fourth cycle of the Path towards Precision Medicine Call. These grants will help the key investigators to work towards providing effective and personalized treatment options for citizens of Qatar based on their genetic profile, to help reduce the prevalent diseases in the country.

In closing, I invite you to browse through our website to learn more about our programs and initiatives. I encourage you to reach out to our team and get started on the journey of turning your research ideas into reality.