13 projects win National Research Awards

MUSCAT, Dec 9 - Thirteen research projects won the National Research Award (NRA 2018) at the fifth edition of The Research Council’s (TRC) Annual Research Forum held at Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre on Sunday. His Highness Sayyid Shihab bin Tareq al Said, Adviser to His Majesty the Sultan and Chairman of The Research Council (TRC), presented the awards
In the PhD category, the awards went to Prof Abdullah Ambusaidi, Dr Imran Baig, Dr Haider al Lawati, Mohamed al Farsi, Dr Zaaima al Jabri and Muhammad S Khan.
In the young researcher’s category, Khalsa Abdullah al Alawi, Faiza Ali al Salti, Baqia Ali al Mughairy, Dr Zaaima al Jabri, Karima al Bulushi and Buthayna al Ghafri won the awards
In the health and social service category, Halima Wali al Balushi’s ‘The super sickling haemoglobin HbS-Oman a study of red cell sickling K’ won the award, while Farrukh Jamil won the award for his project on biodiesel production from dates under the energy and industry sector.
The 5th Annual Research Forum, which has been allocated for discussing the research priorities of the National Research Strategy (NRS) 2040, also included a poster expo displaying 45 works.
TRC also awarded the top research projects under the Faculty Mentored Research Award Programme of TRC (FURAP).
In his welcoming address at the forum, Dr Hilal bin Ali al Hinai, Secretary-General of TRC, said, “The Research Council has been honoured with the noble mission of reflecting His Majesty’s vision through the National Research Strategy, which has been approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in 2008, and the National Innovation Strategy which has been approved by the Cabinet in 2017.”
According to Dr Al Hinai, TRC received 1,544 funding applications for research projects and 860 funding applications for innovation projects from 2009 to 2018, out of which TRC funded 615 research projects, and 100 innovation projects, which contributed towards the development of the capacity of research and innovation in the Sultanate.