Qatar National Research Fund announces UREP’s 12th Cycle Awards

Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) announced yesterday the outcome of the 12^th cycle of its funding program; the Undergraduate Research Experience Program, (UREP). QNRF, a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development is a key research catalyst and funder within Qatar.

UREP aims to spread a research culture amongst undergraduate students by engaging them in “hands on” research projects under the guidance of their academic supervisors. UREP also encourages collaboration between academic and non-academic institutions to promote cross-over of expertise between academia and other institutions in Qatar.

In this 12^th UREP cycle, QNRF received 127 research proposals, each of which was evaluated by three independent peer reviewers. The average score of the proposals was 77.4%. In order to maintain a high quality level for the awarded UREP proposals while sustaining a good success rate, the QNRF Steering Committee decided to adopt a cutoff score of 83% for this cycle, which resulted in the award of 43 research proposals, engaging 160 undergraduate students across 7 academic institutions.

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Commenting on the results, Dr. Abdul Sattar Al-Taie (pictured), Executive Director, QNRF, said “Since October 2006 QNRF has implemented twelve UREP cycles in which a total of 1386 research proposals have been submitted for peer review and 602 proposals have been awarded”.

Dr. Al-Taie highlighted the fact that this cycle is record-breaking in terms of the number of students awarded and continues to achieve considerable success in attracting undergraduate students from universities in Qatar. Dr Al-Taie went on to add  that, “once again, the awarded projects in this cycle deal are very diversified, and will allow students to develop their knowledge and understanding s of research methods while furthering the research culture in Qatar”