Qatar- Promoting partnerships with various industries

Qatar- Promoting partnerships with various industries

The major theme of Qatar University Annual Research Forum & Exhibition 2017 was Private-Public Partnerships for Research. It was held at the research complex of the institution that harbours the largest six of the seventeen research centers of excellence of the university.

Qatar University has successfully developed partnerships with the governmental authorities and the main industry players, mainly for the research of oil and gas. Eminent companies in Qatar are involved like Qatar Petroleum and Qatar Petrochemical Company. The university has developed a good relationship with ExxonMobil Research Qatar. Here, the prime research interest lies in the spheres of reuse of water, environmental management, coastal geology and safety of liquified natural gas.

The first collaboration of Qatar university and EMRQ took place in the year 2010. There was an all-inclusive analysis of a 35 km stretch of land and seawater by the side of the coastline of Qatar. The researchers identified the scores of new species that were not investigated to exist in that particular zone. 

The partnership was also held for researching the industrial wastewater reuse technologies through phytomediation that engages using plants in a system of engineered wetlands for cleaning and naturally processing the industrial wastewater. As per the environmental research lead for EMRQ, Christopher Warren, it could render an alternative water resource for the nation.

Again, in the year 2015, Qatar University ExxonMobil Research Scholars Programme was launched by two institutions that assist the post-graduate research in the fields of reuse of water, risk assessment and monitoring of the environment. The collaboration has stretched beyond the laboratories. Besides the National Center for Educator Development of the government, they also co-organised teacher academies for boosting the teaching skills of science and maths among the country’s primary school teachers.

Qatar University has also done a partnership with a construction company named Qatari Diar Vinci Construction for isolating carbon dioxide using the native microalgae species that have been sequestered from the local environment.

In the area of marine biology, Qatar Petroleum is providing with money for a long-term project that is managed by Environmental Science Center of Qatar University for conserving the hawksbill turtle which is the only species of turtle nesting in Qatar. The specific project deals with the cleaning of the nesting areas of the turtles, tagging and registering the species’ movements, observing their activities, and accumulating data on their eggs. As per the manager of marine operations at Qatar university, Ibrahim Al-Maslamani, the hawksbill turtles are threatened in the Arabian Gulf. 

The research collaborations of Qatar university extend on the farther side of associations with the local and international industry leaders. It led the list of the ‘THE’ or Times Higher Education ‘most international universities for 2015/2016’ which is again followed by the University of Hong Kong and the University of Luxembourg. Qatar has managed to rank 37 in the QS Top 50 Under 50 for the year 2018.

As per the vice president for research and graduate studies of Qatar University, Mariam Al-Maadeed, the research output of the university has significantly grown in the past few years. The faculty of the university has published approximately 2000 studies from 1996 to 2010. After that within six years, the university has published around 5704 studies garnering over 25,575 citations, and a field-weighted citation influence of 1.48. 

The strong collaboration of Qatar university with the international partners and the industry has brought new funding mechanisms that have motivated the publications and involvement in the graduate studies. Qatar University has done collaborations with 1765 institutions from all over the world since 2012. Of these collaborations, 606 belong to Europe, 448 belong to Asia-Pacific, 380 belong to North America, 110 belong to Africa, and 52 are in South America. 

The internal funding program of Qatar University was revamped for growing the research impact and generate research capacity. The university favours student research, developed a concept for helping translate ideas into products, and stirs up the exchange of knowledge with the collaborating universities throughout the world. 

As per Aiman Erbad, Qatar University’s director of research support is, the long-term relationships with the loftiest universities helped in building local capacity that triggered the emergence of solid research teams competent of handling the issues related to the national priority.

The strategy of the university is to aid the research with the influence of ushering in new funding mechanisms for strengthening the association between the centers and the colleges, international collaboration and the industrial co-opetition.