2. Does QNRF intend to carry out big research projects?
QNRF is supporting larger research projects (See question 1 above). Return To Up
3. Why isn't there a list of research projects related to Qatar published for the faculty members and students to choose from?
We leave the choice of the research topics open to the faculty members and the intended students in order to ensure their interest in the research topic and to encourage novelty in their choice of topics. Return To Up
4. Can students apply for grants by themselves?
Students can initiate the projects if they have ideas for a research topic. However, all students will need a faculty adviser who will submit the research proposal. Return To Up
5. What kind of training in methodology should the students receive?
Faculty members should describe their plan for the training of undergraduate students in the methodology of research in their proposals and according to the nature of their discipline or academic areas.
Training could include one-on-one mentoring throughout the project or group sessions hosted by the university as a presentation or short course. Return To Up
6. What language should the proposal be in?
Proposals should be written in English or Arabic. The RFP (in English or in Arabic) and the Submission Form (in English or in Arabic) are provided on the UREP web page in both languages.
If they are written in Arabic, it is required to translate the abstract and some personal information about the participants into English. Return To Up
7. What should the scientific or academic quality for each project be?
It should be appropriate to an undergraduate level. Return To Up
8. Can the proposed research project be the same as already accepted for a research grant at Qatar University?
Yes, since UREP’s grant is complementary to Qatar University’s research grant as they fund separate areas. Return To Up
9. There are two areas of research, applied research and basic research. Is one going to be favored over the other when assessing the proposals?
No, there is no difference between applied and basic research in this program. The peer reviewers will judge the scientific quality of the proposal and its relevance to Qatar and primarily its benefit to the undergraduate student. Return To Up
10. Is it possible to do part of the research outside Qatar?
It is preferred to do the research in Qatar since it will be related to Qatar. However, if it is essential, then this needs to be included in the proposal and its expense to be detailed in Section F: the budget.
The faculty member should get the parental approval for the undergraduate student’s travel before submitting such a research proposal. Return To Up
11. Can the project be initiated by the student with the consultancy of the faculty or does it have to be initiated by the faculty?
The proposal can be initiated by the student if he/she can convince the faculty of the project proposed.
The proposal itself must be submitted by the faculty member according to the items in the RFP. Return To Up
12. Who decides on the subject of the research topic in the proposal?
Either the student chooses a topic and convinces the faculty or vise versa. Return To Up
13. Do the proposals need to go through our university before submitting them to QNRF?
Starting from the 5th UREP cycle, all submitted proposals must be first administratively vetted by the university’s Research Office (or Dean) to ascertain that it complies with university policies and guidelines before it is received by UREP for further processing. If any modifications are required on the submitted proposal, the primary faculty member will be notified by the RO. Return To Up
14. What is the format of the research proposal that is to be submitted?
It must be in Microsoft Word 2003 format. Return To Up
15. Having read through the proposal instructions for the UREP I am not clear and would like to confirm whether the faculty member or the student should be the individual writing the proposal. The instructions indicate that proposals should be prepared by a lead faculty member who will supervise and manage the research work involving the undergrad student.... Ideally, students should be involved in the proposal preparation process, to the fullest extent possible, as a learning experience in the preparation and introduction to the content of such documents.
It is not clear who should author the proposal. If students are to be involved in the proposal process to the fullest extent, I interpret this guidance as the student should be writing the proposal. However, the guidance also indicates that the faculty member should be preparing the proposal.
Clearly, the written work of a professor versus a student can be easily identified. The evaluation criteria can be addressed much more thoroughly by the faculty member versus the student. Therefore, is it the faculty member that should be writing the proposal with the greatest amount of input from the student?
The answer is affirmative to your last question: “is it the faculty member that should be writing the proposal with the greatest amount of input from the student?”
The participation of the student, to the extent possible, in preparing the proposal is part of UREP’s sought after educational experience in engaging undergraduate students in research activities.
Return To Up
Eligible Participants
1. Which institutions can apply?
All higher education institutions in Qatar. This includes:
Georgetown University School of Foreign Service-Qatar,
Northwestern University in Qatar,
Qatar University,
Texas A&M University-Qatar,
University of Calgary – Qatar,
Virginia Commonwealth University-Qatar,
Weill Cornell Medical College-Qatar.
Any future similar higher education institutions to be established in Qatar will also be included in UREP. Return To Up
2. Can a professor apply for a grant if he/she does not know which student will participate in the project, or if the project starts in another semester?
No, the students must be identified and their information (name, email, phone, etc..) be fully provided along with the submission of the research proposal. The grant will be awarded to the students if the proposal is awarded. It is not possible to grant an award to an unknown student. Return To Up
3. Will the UREP cover research by graduate students?
No. QNRF is considering a separate Graduate Research Experience Program for funding quality graduate research work in Qatar. Return To Up
4. Why is the nationality of the faculty member or the student required?
This information is required only for statistical analysis and does not in any way have any consequence on the participation in UREP. Return To Up
5. Can a faculty member residing in a country outside Qatar be considered a mentor and partake in the award?
Since the main focus of UREP is quality mentoring and introduction of the undergraduate students to the research culture, the mentors must be residing in Qatar to ensure one on one interaction with the students. A faculty member residing outside Qatar may participate in a UREP awarded project as an ‘honorary mentor’ but will not be supported by the UREP award. Return To Up
6. Is it possible for the students that are graduating this year to benefit from this program?
Students must be enrolled as undergraduates during the submission of the research proposal. If the student is graduating, it is the responsibility of the faculty member to ascertain the continuation of the work of the graduated student and his commitment to finish the work.
Funding will be stopped for those research proposals whose participants cease to continue on with their work. Return To Up
7. Can Qatari and non-Qatari students participate in the UREP program?
All undergraduate students in the institutions mentioned in question (15) above are eligible. Return To Up
8. How many research proposals can a faculty member or a student participates in a UREP cycle?
The student to faculty member ratio participating in one research proposal is not to exceed 3:1, i.e. no more than three students per one faculty member. There is no limit on the number of faculty members in one research proposal.
A faculty member in any educational institution should not participate in more than two research proposals (even as co-mentors in a research proposal) per UREP cycle. An exception to this condition requires the recommendation of the Dean of the faculty member concerned, assuring UREP of the availability of the faculty member’s allotted time for research supervision.
A faculty member may have a maximum of three concurrently ongoing (not completed) UREP awarded projects for all UREP cycles. Once one of these projects is completed and its Final Report has been submitted to UREP at QNRF, then the faculty member may submit a proposal for a new project in a new UREP cycle.
Each student can participate in only one proposal per UREP cycle. In the event of this occurrence, the submitted proposals will not be processed. If the concerned faculty members consider it fitting, a student may participate in more than one UREP awarded project, but each must be in a different UREP cycle.
The primary faculty member, based on the poor performance of a participating undergraduate student(s) in the awarded proposal, may recommend to UREP to withhold the student(s)’ remaining support or to terminate the work on the research project for which fund disbursement has been affected. This notice has to be communicated, with clear justification, to UREP through the educational institute’s Research Office, or the Dean.
Any switch of students or a change in the title of the awarded project must be directly reported to UREP through the respective Dean or Research Office.
In the event that one participating faculty member’s work contract with her/his educational institution does end during the implementation of an awarded UREP research project, the Primary Faculty Member must (i) either submit the Final Report to UREP by the date of contract termination and effect the remaining award support, or (ii) alternatively, nominate a replacement faculty member to carry on with the project. This replacement is to be confirmed by the Research Office, or the Dean, who should in turn inform UREP of this change with justification. In this case, the pending award support will not be transferred to a faculty member whose work contract is terminated after they leave the educational institution.
In a submitted research proposal, there must be at least one PhD faculty member (or equivalent).
A terminated UREP awarded project remains classified as open in the tally count (three ongoing projects) of the faculty member(s); i.e. if the faculty member terminates one project, she/he will only be allowed two ongoing projects in all future UREP cycles. In the event that the faculty member has three terminated projects, then she/he will not be able to submit any more UREP proposals. Return To Up
9. There is a new bonus incentive in the proposal guidelines collaborative work between two educational institutions under UREP. If Ihave a project where students will have to deal with industry to identify their case students, should I get prior commitment from that company or would the information provided by me will be enough.
This is referring to section (7. Proposal Evaluation Process) of the UREP cycle’s RFP concerning:
“Collaboration: Research proposals will receive 3 Bonus Points for collaboration between two academic institutions, or collaboration between an academic and a non-academic institution in Qatar. UREP defines a project as being collaborative only in the case when there is at least one mentor from each of the collaborating institutions, who will be supervising and quality mentoring the undergraduate student(s).”
UREP’s purpose in introducing this bonus factor is to encourage mentoring collaboration and interdisciplinary research between faculty members at two education institutions or between faculty members at an educational institution and experts/researchers at other research centers, such as that existing at Hamad Medical College, or the private industry who would be supervising the research work of a student (or students) in one educational institution.
Aside from the above definition of ‘collaboration’, the information submitted by the faculty member would be enough in dealing with industry on his proposal.
The key answer to your query is who will be mentoring the student in his/her research project? The student may visit industry, medical centers, government establishments, etc… to gather data for his/her research topic. This is not by itself a ‘collaborative’ project. There must be at least one mentor in the collaborative institution.
The grant, if the research proposal is awarded, will go to the institution of the student(s). The faculty portion of the grant will be divided amicably between the participating faculty members at the two collaborating institutions. Return To Up
10. I am collaborating with non educational institution (local Qatari company) in a solar project. Can I include one of their engineers as co-mentor? If yes, and taking into account that I am supervising three students from fourth cycle, can we include five or six students in the fifth cycle proposal without adding other faculty member? Means, is an external non-faculty engineer will be treated as faculty member in term of a limit in supervising students number?
Yes, an experienced engineer is qualified to be a collaborator. We recommend that at least one of the mentors has a PhD or equivalent. In this case, it would be you.
Yes, two mentors mean you may have up to six participating undergraduate students in one proposal.Return To Up
11. I am in the midst of planning a joint UREP proposal with a faculty member from a different institution here in Qatar. Must the students working on the research project come from both institutions, or may we work entirely with students from one or the other of those two institutions?
The students may all be from one university or they may from both universities. The 3 students to one faculty member still hold. Return To Up
12. Which of the following would be counted as a faculty member?
- Faculty who are not members of Qatar institutions
-
Faculty who are members of the parent campuses of Qatar institutions but are not based in Qatar
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Practitioners from industry, based in Qatar or overseas who will be working with the students or supporting the project
Since UREP is mainly a grant specific to introducing the undergraduates to the research culture, a large educational component is involved in the mentoring and supervision of the student. Three of the evaluation criteria (with 80% weight) of the proposal revolve around this point.
Hence, it is essential that the faculty member be in close proximity to the students.
UREP allows for 'faculty' at other research institutions in Qatar, such as Hamad Medical Corp, government research centers, private sector research lab, etc.. to be mentors for UREP proposals, mainly because of their proximity as indicated above.
Having said that, QNRF does have a more ambitious research funding activity (the NPRP) that is open for Principle Investigators (or Co-PIs) from parent campuses, or practitioners from industry, based in Qatar or overseas. Return To Up
Funding
1. Who owns equipment purchased through funds in the project?
Equipment purchased through funded projects will belong to the student’s institution. Return To Up
2. Can the funds be used for research in another country?
Research should be performed primarily in Qatar. (See Question 10). Return To Up
3. Can a student get grants from both Qatar University and from the UREP?
Students and faculty can receive grants from other sources, as long as the other grants do not duplicate the coverage of the same expenses as UREP’s. Return To Up
4. Can the faculty and/or student attend a conference relevant to their research proposal? How much will UREP cover of traveling and accommodation costs?
Travel for conferences or other educational purposes is permitted and encouraged upon presentation of receipts within the additional $4000 allotted per each student in a research project.
These expenses must be mentioned in the original budget of the proposal to be reimbursed.
The disbursement of these items is subject to the procedures and guidelines of each educational institution as they are paid by the Finance Directors of the relevant institution.
UREP does transfer, in each UREP cycle, and through Qatar Foundation’s Finance Department, the total fund allotted for the institution. It is then disbursed to the students and faculty members by the Finance Director of the relevant institution.
The Finance Director at the educational institution will disburse the registration fee upon presentation of the officially stated registration cost by the sponsors of the conference and their confirmation that the research work has been accepted for oral or poster presentation,. The rest of the funding for attending the conference can then be withdrawn when required, e.g. for travel and accommodation, if the conference is not held in Doha. The total amount to be withdrawn should not exceed the amount under the detail for attending a conference specified in “Section F” of the submitted awarded proposal. Return To Up
5. Does the additional $4000 cover expenses such as books, printing, etc or just the categories mentioned in the presentation?
Yes, they do cover the above mentioned items under publishing. These items should be clearly itemized in the project proposal’s budget (section F). Return To Up
6. If a faculty member is supervising more than one student, what is the amount of money given to him?
For every student supervised, the faculty member will receive $2000.
In the case of multiple faculty members, say (M), and multiple students, say (N), per research project, the student support will always be US$4000 per student irrespective of the number of students. However, the support (S) to be received by each faculty member will be calculated as follows: S= N X 2000/M. Return To Up
7. Is there a set number of hours for the students to do the actual research to cover for the $4000 stipend?
No, it is up to the faculty to decide how many hours is needed and how many hours of mentoring is needed for each research project/proposal. The peer reviewers will judge (by scoring the relevant criterion) whether this is sufficient or not. Return To Up
8. Is there non-financial support given to the research projects, for example marketing such projects to companies and industries?
UREP is not planning such venues at the present time. Return To Up
Deliverables
1. Who will own any Intellectual Property resulting from the research?
Intellectual property from the grants to the faculty-student teams will be according to the IP policies of their respective universities. Return To Up
2. Who is the major beneficiary from doing the research? The student or the faculty member?
Both benefit. The student is introduced to the methodology of research; the faculty member benefits from the input of the student in carrying out the research jointly. Return To Up
3. Is it possible to consider supporting the preparation of the students for doing research by providing for them workshops, training courses etc.. since most students lack the ability to undertake research?
One of the purposes of the UREP is to train and introduce the undergraduate students hands-on to research methods. It is the faculty member’s responsibility to guide them in their introduction to research methodologies.
The Sociology Department at Qatar University is considering a workshop on research methods to be launched in the winter 2009 semester. Return To Up
4. Will the granted projects be published or taken a further step once completed?
There will be annual prizes awarded to the top quality projects that will be presented by the students themselves in an open competition. The publishing of worthy scientific papers is left to the faculty member’s efforts. Return To Up
5. Who prepares the mid-work progress report that is required to submit to UREP in order to disburse the second 25% of the grant, the undergraduate student researcher or the faculty member? And what is the nature of the Final Report?
We do encourage the fact that the student(s) do initially write the progress report themselves since they are the ones performing the proposed research, but it being clearly understood that that report is properly and academically revamped by the faculty member her/himself and returned to the student to witness and learn about a proper progress report presentation.
In any event, the Progress Report and Final Report must be sent/presented to UREP by the faculty member who is ultimately responsible for the progress and the final presentation and conclusion of the research proposal.
The Progress Report: It must be a one to two page report that should highlight:
Progress made,
Results obtained,
Deviations from the original objectives or research plan, if any.
It should also include a list of the main expenditure items purchased and their amounts up to that time.
The Final Report: Each project will culminate with an appropriate Final Report of the completed work in the format of a formal research paper, design product, pamphlet or similar demonstration of scholarly/creative accomplishments. Any multimedia outputs, such as video clips, Power Point presentation, etc… are encouraged to be also submitted.
Both the submitted Final Report and each publication that results from QNRF grant-supported research must include an acknowledgment of the QNRF grant support and a disclaimer stating the following:
“This publication was made possible by a grant from the Qatar National Research Fund. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Qatar National Research Fund. Return To Up
Evaluation Process
1. Is there a minimum score to qualify for a grant?
For each cycle, the threshold grade for awarding the grants will be determined by QNRF to reflect the required quality of the submitted research proposals and limited by the allocated budget. It was set to be 70, 75, 80 and 80 for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th UREP cycles, respectively. It might be increased slightly for the coming UREP cycles to reflect higher quality. Return To Up
2. Could you describe the peer review process?
Each proposal will be reviewed by three independent peer reviewers.
Each reviewer will score each of the four evaluation criteria. They will also be asked to write a comment or technical advice on the project.
The average (median) of the three peer reviewers, for each of the four evaluation criteria, the final grade, their comments and the result of the evaluation will be emailed to the faculty members and students of the proposal.
The peer reviewers are a mix of experts of the community in Doha but not working for any of the educational institutions participating in UREP, mostly Arab expatriate scientists and some international scholars.
Page 4 of the RFP explains the evaluation process more fully. Return To Up
3. Will the peer reviewers have a background in the area of the proposal being evaluated?
There is a slight possibility that the peer reviewer would not be a specialist in the exact field of specialization, but that they definitely are in the general academic field of the research proposal.
The peer reviewer is allowed to return the proposal if he/she feels that the area is outside his/her competence to evaluate. UREP will then send the proposal to another peer reviewer immediately. Return To Up
4. How much time should the students spend on the project? What is a significant amount of work?
Flexibility is left to the faculty member(s) in determining the work schedule and the execution of the project. However, it is expected that at least several number of hours per week is assigned for each undergraduate student to spend on the project and a few hours per week are also allotted for the mentoring of the student’s work by the faculty member. These hours should be clearly stated in section G. Timeline/Milestones in the proposal as the peer reviewers will give a score for this criteria (see next question 41). Return To Up
5. How will the 30 points for the participation of the student be assessed? Is there a certain number of hours to be mentioned in the proposal or even a form for the faculty members to follow?
The following are the guidelines for the peer reviewers in evaluating this criterion:
Overall time schedule to complete the research work
Estimated time duration of each of the anticipated tasks
The estimated time for submitting the final research product
Mentoring and Evaluation plan
A short description of the final outcome of the research product
Once the faculty member outlines the tasks and the number of hours per week that the student is expected to work on the research proposal and the faculty member’s number of hours for mentoring, then it is left for the peer reviewers to decide upon the details provided by the faculty member in the research proposal.
We didn't want to give a set format or rules to follow as different projects may have different requirements according to their fields of specialization. Return To Up
Timelines
1. What are the typical time lines for the UREP cycles for the submission of the RFP, announcement of the awards and the submission of the Progress Report?
At present, UREP is scheduled to have two cycles per academic year. The following are their estimated timelines:
The awarded project must be completed within a year from the announcement of the award, and as indicated in the above table.
Project schedules themselves are at the discretion of the faculty members, as long as they include a significant amount of work by the undergraduate student(s). This could mean, for example, an intensive summer research project, a year long project, a senior research project or other kinds of research-intense projects. Return To Up
3. When should the research projects start?
There will be two UREP cycles per academic year, one in March and the other in September in order to allow undergraduate students whose projects are awarded and funded by UREP to carry out the work during the spring, the summer, or the fall semester.
The research project can start any time before, at or after announcing the award for the project.
In the 1st , 2nd and 3rd UREP cycles, there was no time limit on when the project should end and was left according to the time schedule submitted in the associated RFP. As of the 4th UREP cycle and the following cycles, the project must end at the end of a year after being awarded and as detailed in the table above. Return To Up
4. Is there a timeline for the research project?
The research timeline should be presented as a schedule in section G of the proposal. As of the 4th UREP cycle, the project must end at the end of one year after being awarded as detailed in the table above. Most projects are expected to take more than one semester and at most a full academic year (including summer.Return To Up
