Monthly Archives: November 2013

Qatar’s peculiar research funding dilemma

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Qatar Foundation

{credit}Qatar Foundation{/credit}

While most countries around the world are dealing with shrinking budgets for science research, Qatar has a surplus that the small Gulf state doesn’t know what to do with.

A few years ago, Qatar pledged 2.8% of its annual GDP to science and research – more than any other Arab state. However, according to Faisal Alsuwaidi, president of Research and Development at Qatar Foundation, the country isn’t currently spending even 10% of that amount annually.

“Our current spending is a fraction of what is available. The reason is that we are still recruiting, we do not have enough manpower yet,” he says. “The latest statistics show that Qatar has about 600 scientists, we need to add 1500 more by the year 2018 to meet our research targets.”

While Alsuwaidi declined to give an exact number for the amount of money that Qatar is currently spending on science, he said it is substantial when compared to other states similar to Qatar in size and population. The budget pledged for science research will continue to increase year by year by 15-20% until they hit the 2.8% of GDP target, and he stressed there are no plans to decrease funding. “This would cut into our plans and that is the last thing Her Highness [Sheikha Moza bint Nasser] wants to see.”

While money is not holding back research and innovation in the rich Gulf state, Alsuwaidi acknowledges the real challenge Qatar Foundation is facing is changing the general culture. “In the Arab world we do not have a science culture. I come from industry and when I had an issue with my plant I contacted engineers or manufacturers, I didn’t call in scientists. We want to change that.”

Thomas Zacharia, executive vice president of Research and Development at Qatar Foundation, says this is the long-term plan that they are working on. “The research we are trying to build is a central part of how the country is moving forward. We have to do many things systemically, we are not going to get [a science culture] in one day. You have to do various things to make this successful.”

During this year’s Annual Research Conference in Qatar, Qatar Foundation announced its new research strategy – which focuses on three grand challenges they want to tackle through science by 2020: energy, water and cyber security.

“We thought there was a disconnect between the ambition of diversifying the economy of the country with the scope and scale of the research so what we did is focus the research in a particular way in order to achieve the goals of the country,” says Zacharia.

“I am very pleased with the outcome of this year’s strategy,” adds Alsuwaidi. “In theory it encompasses a number of objectives from last year and we are trying to hire experts of international renown. We are attracting international attention and we are making ourselves known internationally.”

Qatar hones its national research focus areas

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Qatar ARC 2013

The opening session of Qatar’s Annual Research Conference 2013

One year ago, Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF) unveiled the Qatar National Research Strategy (QNRS), a long-term plan to create a knowledge economy in the small state. Today, during the Qatar Annual Research Conference, the foundation announced further honing their research targets to three broad areas: water security, energy security and cyber security.

The three topics were selected after long deliberations amongst 100 experts from all the different sectors involved in research in the country. They rounded them down to 12 main areas, and finally Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chairperson of QF, handpicked the final three as the most important challenges facing Qatar.

“It is not really a change in our research strategy, but an evaluation of the past as we move forward,” says Thomas Zacharia, executive vice president of Research and Development in QF.

The national strategy – and the renewed areas of focus – represent a shift in the country’s research activities. While QF used to fund research that addresses problems in different countries, it is now focusing on issues that are primarily relevant to problems that Qatar faces directly. For example, the energy security target aims at funding research to produce 1000MW of power from solar energy by 2020, around 7-10% of Qatar’s expected energy needs by then.

“But the majority of Qatar’s problems are the same as the rest of the Arab world, so solving them here will solve them in all Arab states as well,” says Faisal Alsuwaidi, president of QF’s research and development. “For example, our research into diabetes – a major health issue in Qatar – can help other countries in the region having the same problem.”

“We are eager to continue nurturing productive partnerships and a collaborative research culture that brings together the most intelligent scientific minds, as they engage in stimulating discussions and debate some of the nation’s grand challenges,” adds Alsuwaidi.

Desert farming pilot yields positive results

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Sahara Forest Project

{credit}Sahara Forest Project{/credit}

After two and a half years of research and testing, the Sahara Forest Project pilot in Qatar has started to yield results, and initial findings are showing good results for arid land agriculture.

The pilot project, built on one hectare of land, produced 75 kg/m2 in three crops annually, which is competitive with those obtained in commercial farms in Europe. The project, however, uses seawater instead of freshwater. The greenhouse, where the plants are grown, uses seawater and blowing winds to create a cooling effect which allows the plants to grow even under the scorching summer heats of Qatar, explains a news story in Science. Pipes with cold seawater passing in them causes some air moisture to condense, which is the source of freshwater plants use.

The cold moisture coming out of the greenhouse also allowed plants to grow outside the greenhouse, and the operators were able to use “evaporative hedges” which brought temperature down by a further 10°C, which allowed desert plants to grow quicker than normal and throughout the whole year. The final component of the pilot is a concentrated solar power plant which provides energy to run the project and any surplus is used in desalination of saltwater for extra freshwater. The salt end product was collected in large pools, and researchers are trying to grow salt-tolerant algae that can be used as animal fodder or grown for bioenergy production in the pools formed.

“The remarkable results demonstrated on the ground reveal the potential for enabling restorative growth and value creation in arid land,” Joakim Hauge, CEO of the Sahara Forest Project, told reporters. According to Hauge, scaling the project to 60 hectares can cover all of Qatar’s current  imports of  cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and egglants. The question is, however, is this commercially feasible? The reports don’t explain how much producing these food crops would cost.

The Sahara Forest Project will launch a new, 20 hectares pilot near Aqaba in Jordan to test the commercial feasibility of the project.

Tomb of ancient Egypt chief physician unearthed in Giza

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The massive tomb carries the mark of elevated status.

The massive tomb carries the mark of elevated status.{credit}Arab Republic of Egypt Ministry of State for Antiquities Affairs{/credit}

The tomb of a top ancient Egyptian physician, who treated royals, was discovered in the Abusir necropolis, a site of excavations just 25 kilometres south of Cairo. A Czech archaeological mission unearthed the limestone tomb last week, confirming through press interviews and on its Facebook page that the tomb does indeed belong to the head of the physicians of the north and south of Egypt some 4,400 years ago.

Shepseskaf-Ankh, which translates to “Shepseskaf is living,” was associated with royalty, including a ruler of Egypt named Niuserre. The same site, which shelters the remains of 14 pyramids, served as the resting place of two other physicians from the fifth dynasty, as well as Old Kingdom rulers and a number of high temple priests close to the kings.

The architecture of the tomb, and its size, stretching across 21 by 14 meters and rising up 4 meters in height as well as housing an open court and eight burial chambers, gives away the high and noble status of the chief physician—who is believed to come from an elite Egyptian family, according to Ali Al-Asfar, deputy head of the ancient Egyptian section of the Ministry of State of Antiquities.

In one section of the tomb, a false door carries some of the ancient doctor’s prestigious titles, including Priest of Ra—the sun god—and Priest of Magic.

Miroslav Bárta, director of the archaeological team from the Czech Institute of Egyptology, told the National Geographic that he is pleased with the historical details contained in the tomb. “This microcosmos illustrates general trends that ruled the society of the day,” he said. “This is exactly the moment when the empire starts to break down due to rising expenses and increasing independence of powerful families.”

First Arab fellow of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine in the UK

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sherif el khamisy

{credit}Sherif El-Khamisy{/credit}

Sherif El-Khamisy, director of the Center for Genomics at Zewail City of Science and Technology, became the first Egyptian and Arab to win a prize fellowship at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, a UK medical research charity which supports young researchers. He beat a total of 164 nominees to be one of the four fellows who will receive £200,000 to further his research.

El-Khamisy and his team are working on repairing DNA breakage and the impact this can have on human health. “Our programme will utilise a combination of cellular and whole animal approaches to unravel the mechanisms by which breaks in one strand of DNA – the most abundant DNA lesion in cells – are repaired and determine the impact of loss of these mechanisms on tissue viability,” he explains. “This work will expand our knowledge of DNA repair and translate it into tangible ideas and new treatment paradigms for cancer and degenerative disorders.”

Using the research fund, El-Khamisy will maintain his current lab at the University of Sussex while also running a new one at the University of Sheffield. “The Sussex lab work will focus primarily on the drug discovery aspects of our work – very exciting leas are already in the pipeline,” he says. The new lab at Sheffield will focus on molecular, cellular and whole animal approaches – particularly zebra fish – to study the mechanisms involved in DINA breakage and repair.

“Both labs will feed and interact with the Genome Center at Zewail City, focusing on Egypt-related problems – primarily living with cancer,” he adds. Ultimately, El-Khamisy hopes his research can produce new treatments which would improve patient quality-of-life, particularly at old age.

“Besides the research financial award and recognition, [the fellowship] puts us on the map of top quality scientists and allows us to be part of a prestigious network of people who meet routinely to collaborate and discuss science. It is all about the network,” says El-Khamisy. “I am thrilled that the award now goes to an Egyptian scientist and hope that our research will open new frontiers in medicine, particularly in the field of genome stability”