Thematic Research Grant Program | HBKU
Thematic Research Grant Program
HBKU Research

Thematic Research Grant Program

Overview

Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s (HBKU) Thematic Research Grant Program, which is funded by the Office of HBKU’s Vice President for Research, focuses on supporting HBKU researchers to tackle pressing scientific challenges in alignment with the university’s thematic research focus areas. The program promotes interdisciplinary collaboration amongst researchers across HBKU colleges and research institutes to optimize the impact and enhance the use of resources at hand.

Through such interdisciplinary collaborative projects, the OVPR strives to further HBKU’s strategic vision by actively contributing towards its research priorities in alignment with Qatar Foundation (QF) and the country’s national priorities and challenges. OVPR seeks to provide support and guidance and to address the needs of researchers across all disciplines.

The awardees will have up to 24 months to complete their projects through a Go/No-Go milestone-based approach, designed to ensure thorough compliance and outcomes.


Objectives

  1. The Thematic Research Grant Program provides funding to HBKU researchers in support of cutting-edge translational research in HBKU research priority areas.
  2. The program intends to stimulate research collaboration through interdisciplinary and cross-entity research projects to tackle key scientific and technological challenges that cut across priority research themes and sub-themes.
  3. Foster interdisciplinary cross–collaboration between HBKU entities.
  4. Help leverage expertise and resources to optimize research impact.

Focus Areas and Desired Outcomes

The program focuses on supporting collaborative and interdisciplinary research projects that concentrate on solving specific scientific or social problems that target research challenges in alignment with HBKU’s Thematic Research Focus Areas:

  • Precision Medicine
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Progressive Education
  • Sustainability
  • Social Progress

Expected outcomes include but are not limited to:

  • Solution feasibility assessment
  • Policy development
  • Solution design and implementation
  • Technology development and prototyping

Cycle 2 Awardees, 2022

Awardee Project Title Other Principal Investigators Area of Research
Awardee: Dr. Abdulkarem I. Amhamed
QEERI

 

Project Title: Sustainable Aviation Fuel from Direct CO2 Capture and Green Hydrogen (SAF-DAC-GH)

Dr. Tareq Al-Ansari
CSE

Dr. Mohamed Abdallah
CSE

Dr. Hilary Bell
CL

Dr. Ahmed Sodiq
QEERI

Sustainability

Awardee: Dr. Aiman Mohmood M. Erbad
CSE

 

Project Title: Decision-Making in Autonomous Ariel Vehicles during Critical Missions: A Policy Perspective on Ethical AI

Dr. Ghanim Al-Sulaiti
QCRI

Dr. Ala Al-Fuqaha
CSE

Dr. Evren Tok
CPP

Artificial Intelligence/Social Progress

Awardee: Dr. Tareq A. Al-Ansari
CSE

 

Project Title: Design and development of a prototype that harvests water from air for food production

Dr Khalid Mahmoud
QEERI

Sustainability

Awardee: Dr. Sabri Boughorbel
QCRI

 

Project Title: Large-Scale Human-in-the-Loop Histopathology Dataset Creation and AI Models for Clinical Pediatrics Applications

Dr. Marco Agus
CSE

Dr. Jens Schneider
CSE

Artificial Intelligence/Precision Health

Awardee: Dr. Bernard J. Jansen
QCRI

 

Project Title: CipherBot: An AI-based Bilingual Interactive Platform for Supporting Progressive Education through Collaborative Storytelling

Dr. Evren Tok
CPP

Artificial Intelligence/Progressive Education

Awardee: Dr. Yongsoo Park
QBRI

 

Project Title: Drug screening for autism spectrum disorder using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)

Dr. Ayman Al Haj Zen
CHLS

Precision Health

Awardee: Dr. Abeer R. Al-Shammari
QBRI

 

Project Title: A precision medicine approach to investigate autism-related functions of altered blood proteins as potential targets for autism therapy

Dr. Mohammad Farhan
CHLS

Precision Health

Awardee: Dr. Nehad Alajez
QBRI

 

Project Title: CRISPR-Cas9 functional screen to identify novel prognostic and therapeutic lncRNA targets in triple negative breast cancer

Dr. Tanvir Alam
CSE

Dr. Omar Albagha
CHLS

Precision Health

Awardee: Dr. Kabir Hassan Biswas
CHLS

 

Project Title: Engineering a high affinity peptide combining computational and experimental methods towards precision medicine applications

Dr. Prasanna Kolatkar
QBRI

Dr. Henning Horn
CHLS

Precision Health

Awardee: Dr. Fadel Tissir
CHLS

 

Project Title: Dissecting the role of uncontrolled neural stem cell division in cortical neurogenesis and glioma genesis

Dr. Lawrence Stanton
QBRI

Dr. Mohamed Aittaleb
CHLS

Precision Health

Awardee: Dr. Christos Anagnostopoulos
CSE

 

Project Title: Corporate Social Responsibility through Sport: What’s the Score for Companies listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange?

Dr. Brenno Menezes
CSE

Dr. Kamilla Swart-Arries
CSE

Dr. Ilias Bantekas
CL

Dr. Kim Moloney
CPP

Social Progress

Cycle 1 Awardees, 2021

 

Awardee Project Title Other Principal Investigators Area of Research
Awardee: Dr. Hicham Hamoudi,
senior scientist,
QEERI

 

Project Title: 3D Printing Based on Self-Assembled Molecular Building Blocks for Materials Design and Bio-Applications

 

Dr. G. Berdiyorov
QEERI 

Dr. Bo Wang
CSE

Maxime Clement
CSE

Sustainability

Awardee: Dr. Fadwa El Mellouhi,
senior scientist,
QEERI

 

Project Title: An Artificial Intelligence Platform for Accelerating Materials Discovery (AIPAM)

 

Professor Samir Ibrahim Belhaouari
CSE

Artificial Intelligence
/Sustainability

Awardee: Dr. Sophie Richter-Devroe,
associate professor,
CHSS

 

Project Title: Forced Migration, Digital Technology, and Health

 

Dr. Ingmar G. Weber
QCRI

Dr. George Mikros
CHSS

Sustainability
/Social Progress

Awardee: Dr. Jens Schneider,
assistant professor,
CSE

 

Project Title: A multimedial Education Tool for Qatar’s History

 

Dr. Younss Ait-Mou
CSE

Dr. Dena Al-Thani
CSE

Dr. Marco Agus
CSE

Dr. Wajdi Zaghouani
CHSS

Dr. Georgios Mikros
CHSS

Dr. Marc Owen Jones
CHSS

Progressive Education

Awardee: Dr. Roberto Di Pietro,
professor,
CSE

 

Project Title: Blending AI and Regulation for Lawful Anonymous WEB Navigation

 

Dr. Georgios Dimitropoulos
College of Law

Artificial Intelligence
/Cybersecurity

Awardee: Dr. Julie Decock,
scientist, QBRI

 

Project Title: Validation of LDHC as a Novel Target for Precision Medicine in Breast Cancer

 

Dr. Omar Khan
CHLS

Precision Medicine

Awardee: Dr. Bo Wang,
assistant professor,
CSE

 

Project Title: A Miniaturized High-Dynamic-Range Bioluminescence and Fluorescence Biosensing System for Biomedical Applications

 

Dr. Kabir H. Biswas
CHLS

Precision Medicine

Awardee: Dr. Barry Solaiman,
assistant professor,
College of Law

 

Project Title: Artificial Intelligence for Precision Medicine & Health Technologies: Developing a Regulatory Framework for Qatar and the Middle East

 

Dr. Said Ismail
CHLS

Dr. Mohammed Ghaly
CIS

Dr. Mowafa Househ
CSE

Dr. Borbala Mifsud
CHLS

Dr. Paul Thornalley
QBRI

Precision Medicine
/Artificial Intelligence

Awardee: Dr. Borbala Mifsud,
assistant professor,
CHLS
Project Title: Regulatory Interactions of Autism-Associated Neural Enhancers Implicate Novel Genes in Autism Etiology

 

Dr. Lawrence Stanton
QBRI

Dr. Mohammed Farhan
CHLS

Precision Medicine