ABU DHABI // United Arab Emirates University showcased its research last night in a special event intended to underscore calls for more funding of local research. Academic officials say support for such research is lacking though it is vital to national development.
On display at the Emirates Palace hotel were about 100 academic case studies focusing on the country's health, economic, environmental and social issues.
Dr Abdullah al Khanbashi, vice-chancellor of the university, said: "The country at the federal and local levels has identified the need to transform to a knowledge-based society, and the only way to do that is to create knowledge in the country."
UAE University, located in Al Ain, and the nation's oldest federal university, aims to become its first research-based institution and has launched a public health research institute and PhD programmes in the past 18 months.
Mohammed Ahmed al Bowardi, secretary general of the executive council of Abu Dhabi, and Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and chancellor of the university, praised the research goals at the event.
But like other universities across the country, the institution has yet to receive any funding from the country's grant-making agency, the National Research Foundation. The grants pipeline has been blocked since 2008, when the foundation was set up, and as a result universities have had to delay projects.
While waiting, UAE University has approved some projects based on their relevance. For example, several studies have focused on diabetes, which affects more than a quarter of Emiratis.
The Emirates Foundation, a philanthropic organisation, has picked up some of the slack, distributing millions of dirhams to the university. However, funding from the Government was vital, Dr al Khanbashi said.
"We have squeezed from our budget certain amounts so that we have the capabilities for research, but if we continue to do that, what we end up with is research that is abstract," he said.
Rory Hume, the university's provost, said the event was intended "to remind the Abu Dhabi agencies that we are here as an asset they can use".
Officials at other local universities concurred. "Applied research is fundamental to the growth of the country," said Gautam Sen, vice provost of research at the American University of Sharjah.
Daniel Johnson, provost of Zayed University, said it would be up to the Government to give local researchers the opportunity to strengthen their disciplines. "It will be part of the maturation process for the UAE, the universities and the country's researchers," he said. "We need not only a better structure for funding, but to work as one and invest in our own."
Research shown at the event included studies with local aspects on desalination, traffic safety, genetics and divorce.
