OVPR participated in The “Reality and Future of Scientific Research in the GCC Countries” Forum

The General Secretariat of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) organized the “Reality and Future of Scientific Research in the GCC Countries” Forum virtually on Zoom. Dr. Nouria Alkandari, Assistant Vice President for Research Analysis and Development, represented the Office of Vice President for Research at Kuwait University in the Forum held on Thursday, April 8th, 2021 at 9 am.

The Forum discussed the following themes:

1. Scientific research reality in the GCC countries during 2016-2019
2. Scientific research challenges at the GCC’s higher education and research institutes.
3. GCC joint efforts, prospects and future visions in the field of scientific research and innovation.

The Forum was concluded with the following recommendations:

1. Create a comprehensive framework to regulate and define a working mechanism for all scientific research areas.
2. Draw a road map for specific scientific fields of Gulf priority in order to combine efforts and focus on them so that one Gulf state is chosen to be the leader in a specific discipline according to the strength of its research production in that particular field.
3. Increase universities' twinning programs to include several collaboration initiatives in scientific research, such as the exchange of students, researchers and resources.
4. Create a platform for GCC’s top scientific research practices to exchange knowledge and expertise.
5. Establish a funding body to fund scientific research in all GCC countries in order to ensure the sustainability of research funding, continuity of cooperation and increase research outputs at the Gulf level.