Office of the Vice President for Research
The Office of the Vice President for Research promotes, sustains, and develops scientific research at Kuwait University through policy, programs and procedures for grant support. It endeavors to create an environment that encourages pursuit of humanities, basic and applied research, with emphasis on priority and solution-based research to serve mankind.
OVPR renders management, services, resources and technology support to achieve the fundamental goals of research, sets priorities, develops infrastructure and world-class labs for high quality research, encourages faculties to innovate, discover and invent, and steers faculty research towards scientific distinction and excellence.
The Office explores possibilities of investing research outputs, builds inter-institutional, regional and international alliances/partnerships for collaborative research, bridges institutional/industry divide for marketing of research outputs of commercial propensity, facilitates patents registration and safeguards intellectual property rights, and decisively moves towards the establishment of Research Park at Kuwait University, envisioned as the hub of innovation, creativity and scientific intellectualism. Emphasis is also on communication, awareness and visibility, achieving outputs of high impact that elevate KU's scientific standing, and advancing institutional capabilities towards global dimensions.
The OVPR is headed by the Vice President for Research (OVPR), a multiple-responsibility Sector that oversees management and functionality of the following three constituent offices:
• Research Sector (RS), this office provides grants and services support to faculty research community for the pursuit of humanities, basic, applied, priority and solution-based research that holds significance for the state, society and community.
• Academic Publication Council (APC) is responsible for the preparation of KU's scientific journals, overseeing their production, release and marketing. A total of nine scientific journals are released and listed in international databases.
• Center for Gulf & Arabian Peninsula Studies (CGAPS) provides an active forum for specialized research on dominant Gulf/regional issues/concerns, organizes conference/seminars and builds requisite data archive.
All through this journey, that started four decades ago in 1979, RS's fundamental mission has been to lay an enduring foundation of research at Kuwait University for encouraging faculties to pursue original, high quality research that is relevant in contemporary context, meets national needs, and fulfils social and community aspirations.
At the heart of this mission is RS’s well defined system of research support for promoting, supporting and sustaining faculty wide research interests in basic, applied and humanities research, facilitated through resources and services support. This system is integral to RS’s policy, principles and procedures, overseeing the rendering of grant support to faculties for pursuing high quality ventures that are scientifically sound and seek to resolve national concerns. RS’s policy is, therefore, focused on building institutional research strengths through well-defined programs, clear priorities, and provision of awards and rewards as stimulants for high quality research, while elements of productivity, publications, partnerships, research marketing, are equally predominant in raising the existing status and standard of faculty research towards the acquisition of international credibility.
Given this outstanding purpose, RS’s mission is vast and increasingly committed to globalizing institutional research, an objective that requires strengthening institutional resource muscle through infrastructural enhancement as a conscious step towards creating a supportive environment for advanced research. Emphasis is also on encouraging scientific openness through periodic poster events, enhancing interdisciplinary and collaborative research, and on elevating quality standards for strengthening the scientific foundations at Kuwait University, enhancing research culture, and moving towards establishing centers of research excellence. Establishment of KU Research Park is also an equally strategic commitment, laying grounds for scientific innovation, germination of new ideas and spin-off technologies, with tremendous scope and propensity for industry-research linkage, and marketing of scientific inventions.
A clear new strategy and dimension, therefore, prevail in institutional research, with priorities and realistic goals set for KU research sector to acquire international dimensions, on grounds of faculties scientific capabilities and creative powers. Faculties are also increasingly moving towards the redressal of priorities and issues of national and social significance, sustained through the grant of awards, with review process ensuring scientific merit, originality, relevancy and quality of proposed research. The provision of needed resources, further complement research implementation, allowing faculties to innovate, and pursue advanced high quality research.
RS's manual of Research Support Rules & Regulations, as well as e-manual (available to researchers through the portal facility), provide the guiding principles on the regulatory framework and bylaws governing the system of grant awards at KU, which are continuously reviewed, updated and reformed for facilitating researchers. RS is also incorporating e-mode in its research operations and has generated the electronic research support application, which is being introduced for faculties to have the advantage of online submission of proposals. RS is also refining its processing procedures for expediting grant approvals, encouraging well-defined comprehensive proposals, and expanding its collaborative sphere through new interactive alliances and partnerships with external institutions for joint research ventures of scientific and human value, as well as for technology indigenization/transfer, research investment, patent registration, and intellectual property rights, as well as for the feasibility of pursuing large-scale interdisciplinary studies, thereby setting new directions in institutional research. RS’s increased focus is currently on developing areas of research strengths, setting quality benchmark in faculty research, reinforcing the value, significance and impact of research outputs, and attaining recognition and visibility through scientific and creative excellence.
