Subject: NPRP Workshops
As part of its policy of continuous review and refinement in response to feedback received, QNRF proposes to hold a series of three workshops designed to help lead PIs successfully navigate the QNRF NPRP online submission and proposal preparation procedure, as well as illustrate how to complete the NPRP Budget Template in accordance with the Instructions and Guidelines available for downloading on the website www.qnrf.org.
These workshops will be held at the following venues:-
Qatar academia Administration Building Conference Hall, Monday October 13th 10.30am – 12.00pm;
Education City, Texas A&M University, Lecture Hall 238, Tuesday October 14th 9.30am – 11.30am;
HMC [at a time and venue to be confirmed]
For those PIs located outside Qatar and who therefore may be unable to attend, QNRF will be posting a short video, on its website, of the online submission procedure in an effort to share the experience and maximize the advantage.
Communication 2
Subject: Budget Template Revision 2
It has come to our attention that a duplication error in the formula on the “Combined Budget” spreadsheet, will produce an incorrect total for Years 1, 2 and 3 for row 25 “Miscellaneous” Therefore we suggest that you use the “Budget Template Revised 2 for your submission, however, should you already have begun preparation and have entered data and are comfortable making the correction directly to the cells affected, then please amend the formulae in cells at row 25, SS7 Miscellaneous Year 1, column V to read +W390, Year 2 column AH to read +AI390 and Year 3, column AT to read +AU390. The error will not affect the combined budget totals. We apologize for any inconvenience so caused.
Communication 3
Subject: RO deadline extension
It has come to our attention that some organizations and institutions have issued directives setting their own internal deadlines for Lead PIs to submit their full proposals earlier than November 15th, so that the respective Research Office (RO) will have enough time to vet these proposals.
As the above action will deprive you, the Lead PI, from valuable time needed to prepare your proposal and as other Lead PIs from collaborating institutions, who intend to select a Qatari institution as a submitting institution, are not aware of such internal directives, I please to inform you that have requesting that ROs would adhere to the original deadline and allow the Lead PIs to submit the full proposals to our online system by November 15th, 2008.
In exchange for that, QNRF will grant ROs two more weeks from the above deadline for RO vetting. Concurrently with that, any modifications to the proposals, requested from Lead PIs by the RO, will be accepted before the new RO deadline of December 1st, 2008.
Based on the above, we have also relaxed the deadline for sending the hardcopy to QNRF's office to the above new deadline, December 1st, 2008.
Communication 4
Subject: NPRP Workshops
As part of its policy of continuous review and refinement in response to feedback received, on Wednesday, 22nd October, at 9.30am – 11.30am,.QNRF will hold the third of a series of three workshop designed to help lead PIs successfully navigate the QNRF NPRP online submission and proposal preparation procedure, as well as illustrate how to complete the NPRP Budget Template in accordance with the Instructions and Guidelines available for downloading on the website www.qnrf.org.
This third workshop will be held at the following venue:-
HMC Medical City, Building No. 16, Fourth Floor, HMC. This is the Asian Village building, near the defence round-about.
Wednesday, 22nd October, at 9.30am – 11.30am,
For those PIs located outside Qatar and who therefore may be unable to attend, QNRF has posted a short video, on its website, of the online submission procedure in an effort to share the experience and maximize the advantage.
Communication 5
QNRF is now pleased to share with you the new budget template.
In response to feedback and to further stimulate the development of a research culture within Qatar, the revised QNRF budgetary policy now allows the utilization of up to 15% of the total annual budget of your project to be used to support the cost of researchers travelling from outside Qatar to conduct research within Qatar and, as these costs can be allocated against the "Inside Qatar" portion of the budget, the "Outside Qatar" portion of the budget will be preserved. The days spent in Qatar by the team member(s) whilst conducting the research will count towards the requirement that at least 50% of the funded research effort must take place within Qatar.
The new template contains the following revisions:-
Revised "Guidelines" reflecting the new policy adjustment;
Revised schedule "Travel SS5" which now has provision for the allocation of research trips, as detailed above, to the "Inside Qatar" portion of the budget. Please ensure compliance with our 15% requirement otherwise your proposal will be declined during the prescreening stage.
If this revision does not apply to your project and you have already compiled your budget using the original template, there is no need to adopt the revised budget spreadsheet and QNRF will accept budget compilations submitted using the original budget template.
If you have any queries regarding this policy revision please do not hesitate to contact me by email, detailing the exact nature of your enquiry, on dmoore@qf.org.qa
