DOHA: Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) yesterday announced the results of the fourth cycle of its increasingly competitive Junior Scientists Research Experience Programme (JSREP), which aims to boost Qatar’s research capacity through funding ‘junior’ scientists aged 40 or under.
In its latest cycle, QNRF has awarded JSREP grants to five proposals. The awarded institutions include Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar and Qatar University. Their projects fall in the fields of natural sciences, humanities, medical and health, and engineering and technology.
QNRF funds two cycles of JSREP annually, with grants of up to $100,000 per project, per year, awarded for duration of up to three years. Over the next three years, the awarded projects will receive total funding of over $1m.
Commenting on the Programme’s rising profile, Dr Abdul Sattar Al Taie (pictured), Executive Director of QNRF said: “JSREP is aimed at promoting a research culture among up-and-coming scientists. JSREP is a very competitive programme. We have had a total of 63 applicants since its commencement in 2010 and, of these only 21 have made it through our stringent review process and passed the cut-off mark.”
“The projects awarded in this cycle address some of the needs and challenges our society faces. Our programmes not only enable innovation for the benefit of Qatar, they also simultaneously contribute to building the country’s human capital in science and research,” he added.
Two projects were awarded to Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q) for research on mathematical theorems and programming solutions in computer science.
The second CMU-Q project will seek to develop an extension of the high-level programming construct, ‘Join Pattern,’ with features that will make the system more robust and effective for parallel and distributed programming.
Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) has been awarded two proposals for research on ovarian tumours and cancer, the second leading cause of cancer-related death in women across the world.
In its first study, WCMC-Q will explore the significance of non-mutated genes in ovarian tumours that occur unexpectedly, in hopes of identifying new genes that are involved in the formation of tumours.
The second project awarded to WCMC-Q will examine whether activated endothelial cells, which line the interior surface of blood vessels and lymphatic vessels, represent a sanctuary site for ovarian cancer cells, providing resistance to drug treatment and allowing the recurrence of the disease.
The fifth grant was awarded to Qatar University for a study on how language is used by people who live and work in ‘globalised’ Qatar, both online and offline, to construct their social class, gender identities and their sense of culture. The Peninsula
