Visit Aimed at Creating a Receptive Environment of Interaction, Communication and Confidence-Building as a Strategy to Advance Institutional Research

Keeping up with its sustained efforts to improve institutional research and carrying forward its initiated visits to KU's faculties, the Research Sector met with the academic faculty members at the Faculty of Arts on Wednesday 24/4/2024. The RS team was headed by Prof. Othman Al-Khudher, Acting Vice President for Research, and included Prof. Noriah Al-Kandari, Assistant Vice President for Research Analysis and Development, Prof. Abdullah Jawad Sultan, Acting Assistant Vice President for Research Finance and Implementation, and Dr. Haneen Al-Ghabra, Assistant Vice President for External Research Collaboration and Consultation. The RS team was received by a group of academic faculty members.

The primary goal of the visit is to create a receptive environment of interaction, communication and confidence-building between the RS and the research community. The visit included a demonstration of the wide-ranging research services offered by the RS, followed by a Q&A session in which the RS team addressed various researchers queries.

The meeting started with a speech by Prof. Othman Al- Khudher in which he welcomed the audience and signaled that the Research Sector has launched the faculty visits activity to discuss the challenges and obstacles faced during the research process as well as to answer researchers' inquiries regarding all aspects of the research grants offered by the RS. Prof. Al-Khudher stated that the meeting mainly aims at increased faculty involvement in research through the grants award system.

On her part, Prof. Noriah Al-Kandari explained the various aspects of the research grants system including progress and final reports as well as procedures of scientific publication of funded and unfunded research. Prof. Al-Kandari also encouraged the newly appointed Kuwaiti faculty members to apply for the Research Initiation Grant as a kick-start for more advanced research achievements.

Meanwhile, Dr. Abdullah Sultan demonstrated in detail other features like temporary manpower assigned to research projects, purchasing equipment, expenditures, and running costs.

Then, Dr. Al-Ghabra shed some light on the requirements for the Poster Day event that takes place during the Scientific Research Conference held annually by the RS. The event involves the participation of KU's academic faculty members, teaching assistants and graduate students in addition to researchers from local research institutions with which Kuwait University has established joint research agreements such as Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, the National Guard, Kuwait Oil Company, and the Environment Public Authority.