The research awards primarily aim at recognizing research excellence, and honoring faculty researchers for their outstanding research contributions to scientific advancement. This purpose is achieved through instituting awards for distinguished research in the broad streams of Basic and Applied Sciences and Arts & Humanities in the context of faculty research, and for innovative and meritorious endeavors of postgraduate students pursuing Master's and Ph.D. programs. Essentially, the awards symbolize RS’s commitments to honor KU’s distinguished faculty researchers and graduate students community. In all, a total of 10 awards are earmarked for faculty researchers, and six for graduate student’s projects prize, offered under the following categories:

Faculty Researchers

Distinguished Researchers Awards

RS offers a total of six awards under the Distinguished Researchers category, 3 in Basic and Applied Sciences and 3 in Arts & Humanities fields, earmarked for seasoned faculty researchers with distinguished publications record and landmark research. The awards are based on competitive assessment and expert’s evaluation of nominees' research performance and productivity. A standard criterion, evolved by the RS, is uniformly applied in the assessment process to select the winning entries.

Best Young Researchers Awards

A total of 4 awards are earmarked for Best Young Researchers, in recognition of outstanding research efforts of faculty members at the Assistant Professor's level, and evenly distributed over applied sciences and arts & humanities streams. The winning entries are selected through the standard process of evaluation and assessment of researchers’ accomplishments, with merit being the sole determining criteria for award winners.

RS is currently in the process of reforming and establishing new criteria for evaluation of faculty nominations under the two awards categories for distinguished research in Applied Sciences and Arts & Humanities fields. The purpose is to generate a more refined evaluation yardstick for an explicitly measurable rating scale that could facilitate competitive review of nominations, and selection of winning entries. The new criteria, centered on point-based system, is intended to serve as a dependable instrument for competitive assessment of a nominee's scientific publications and professional activities, qualifying him/her for Distinguished & Best Young Researchers Awards. The point-based system is earmarked for presidential endorsement, prior to its adoption/implementation.

Graduate Students

Master's Thesis

A total of four prizes are offered to graduate students in recognition of their meritorious research at Master's level. The winners are selected on the basis of evaluation of thesis work that achieves distinction.

Ph.D. Thesis

RS offers 2 awards for meritorious research at doctoral level, leading to the award of Ph.D. degree. The winning entries are selected by applying standard evaluation criteria for the assessment of the Ph.D. work, resulting in selecting the prize winners.

Graduate Students Projects prize are categorically based on evaluation of students thesis work, with excellence being the criteria for prize winning students entries.

Overall, RS's awards activity at the faculty and graduate levels is integral to institutional endeavors in promoting the culture of scientific distinction in institutional research at Kuwait University. Awards activity, therefore, constitutes an essential element of RS's strategy for encouraging research excellence in faculty scientific endeavors, and innovative and meritorious efforts at the graduate level.