Muscat: The Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation announced 12 winners of the National Research Award.
The announcement was made at the seventh annual researchers’ forum held on Monday under the auspices of HH Sayyid Theyazin bin Haitham al Said, Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Dr Rahma bint Ibrahim al Mahrouqiyah, Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation said that the seventh edition of the National Scientific Research Award saw hard competition between researchers from various academic and research institutions with a record 218 scientific papers vied for the awards, a 34.6 per cent increase over the previous edition.
The novel identity of Oman Animal and Plant Genetic Resources Centre (Mawarid) was launched on the sidelines of the event.
Dr Saif bin Abdullah al Haddabi, Under-Secretary for Research and Innovation at the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, said that the national scientific research strategy targets to upgrade scientific research and development system through enhancing economy based on knowledge, innovation and research and supporting intellectual capital.
Al Haddabi counted the achievements made by scientific research sector in 2020 including funding 248 research projects as part of a programme for supporting efficiency-based research project, supporting and incubating three students’ projects as part of a progamme that aims to convert graduation projects in the field of the fourth industrial revolution to emerging companies and funding 28 researches as part of a programme allocated to supporting coronavirus researches.
The National Scientific Research and Development Strategy seeks to reinforce the role of scientific research and transformation to the knowledge economy and society with the aim of achieving sustainable development goals in the Sultanate.
Text by Nawal al Samsamiyah
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