Qatar- QNRF awards 54 research grants 

(MENAFN - The Peninsula) Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) has awarded 54 research grants under the eighth circle of the Undergraduate Research Experience Programme (UREP). The research proposals would engage 187 undergraduate students across 6 academic institutions.

QNRF, an initiative of the Qatar Foundation (QF), received 123 research proposals this cycle, each of which was evaluated by three independent peer reviewers. The average score of all research proposals was 78 percent. The awarded research proposals had to achieve a score of 83 percent or above, which is the cut-off score the QNRF Steering Committee decided to adopt to ensure only top competitive researchers were being awarded funding.

UREP aims at spreading a research culture among 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 breeding of expertise between academia and other industries in Qatar.

Since October 2006, QNRF has implemented eight UREP cycles in which a total of 874 research proposals have been submitted for peer reviewing and 412 proposals have been awarded, QNRFs Executive Director Dr Abdul Sattar Al Taie said.

What makes this eighth cycle special is the fact that the number of undergraduate applicants exceeded the usual 1,000 applicant threshold, reaching 1,143. This will greatly contribute to the human capital in research, which is one of the milestones for building the knowledge based economy and Qatar Vision 2030, he added.