Research Pillars and Priorities

As part of its latest transformation strategy (2018-2023), Qatar University (QU) strives to become a globally recognized higher education institution that drives impact-focused interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary research. QU is currently ranked as a leading institution internationally in terms of global research partnerships and is recognized for accommodating a broad diversity of talented faculty members and innovative researchers. These individuals have the potential to pursue the University’s vision of excellence and fulfill its goal of becoming the higher education institution of choice for distinguished researchers and students.

Being the first national and largest university in Qatar, QU has built a reputation of excellence and leads in research output across most disciplines. QU also has the largest pool of undergraduate and graduate students, making it the primary source of human capital for most sectors of the economy. Through impactful and high-quality research, the university aims to address Qatar’s research needs in areas of national priority, with the ambition to explore new opportunities for knowledge transfer and research commercialization.

National Needs and QU’s Research Pillars

In the identification of the core research areas, it was essential to utilize various sources of data collection, including QU strategy, national and sectoral strategies, external stakeholder research needs, internal analysis of QU’s research landscape, and international research trends. All of which fed into the identification of the broad thematic research pillars as well as the research priorities and focus areas under each of the four research pillars:

1. Energy and Environment 2. Health and Biomedical Sciences 3. Information and Communication Technology 4. Social Sciences and Humanities

For each pillar, we identified a number of core research areas and 2-4 transformative priorities that would constitute the base of QU’s impactful research.