Qatar forges ahead with science vision

Abstract

Brian Owens visited Qatar to see how the tiny Gulf state is working to become a world leader in health and life sciences research as part of its broader national vision for 2030.Qatar might be small, but it has big ambitions in several realms, including science. The Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development is the organisation charged with delivering the country's research plans along with the rest of its National Vision for 2030, which aims to modernise the state and develop a strong knowledge economy to keep the country going when natural gas reserves eventually run out. The Foundation is a semi-private non-profit organisation, set up in 1995 to help transform Qatar from a petro-state into a leader in education, research, and the arts. It is headed by Sheika Moza bint Nasser Al Missned, one of the wives of the former emir, who takes a strong personal interest in the Foundation's work, according to those who work there. “She has a strong commitment to health care globally and locally”, says Egbert Schillings, chief executive of the World Innovation Summit for Health, which is held in Qatar's capital Doha each February.Health and life sciences is one of the four scientific priorities the Foundation is focused on to realise the national vision—alongside energy and water, cyber security, and environmental research—and some see it as the most important. “The life sciences are definitely where the accent is”, says Schillings.One stop shopWhen it comes to funding for biomedical research, the Qatar Foundation is pretty much the only game in town. It supports extramural research at Qatar's two domestic universities and nine branch campuses of international universities—six from the USA, and one each from France, the UK, and Canada. It also funds more directed research at several research institutes, and technology transfer and commercialisation in a new science and technology park.It is difficult, however, to determine how much money the Foundation is spending on science and research because financial transparency does not seem to be a high priority. The Foundation's annual reports give some examples of spending on research, but no detailed breakdown of budget lines, or even the total budget. Requests for further information were not answered in time for publication.Qatar has pledged to spend 2·8% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on science annually. Qatar's GDP in 2013 was more than US$200 billion, giving a notional science budget of nearly $6 billion, but it has not yet come close to meeting that target—not because of a lack of funds or political will, but because there simply are not enough scientists in the country to absorb that amount of money.Much of the funding is channelled through the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), a funding agency similar to the US National Science Foundation that was set up in 2006, which funds all fields of scientific research, supporting researchers from undergraduates up to senior scientists. In 2013, the QNRF awarded $120 million under its flagship National Priorities Research Programme; however, details about how much of that went to each national priority, including health research, are not available.QNRF funds nearly all of the extramural university research in the country, but a fairly large proportion also goes overseas. For each grant the principal investigator must be based in Qatar, but up to 35% of the money can be spent on research abroad. “That's unique among national research funders”, says Thomas Zacharia, senior vice-president of research and development at the Qatar Foundation.The fund's grants go to a limited number of universities. Qatar has two of its own: Qatar University, the older and more established of the two, and Hamad bin Khalifa University, which was established in 2013. Although Qatar University does do research, and wins the lion's share of grants from QNRF, its main focus is on undergraduate education and training. The newer institution is set to be more research-oriented, and will focus on graduate degrees. Two of the international branch campuses—Weill Cornell Medical College and the University of Calgary—also focus on health and biomedical science.The relatively small pool of applicants means that success rates are quite high. “I think that's the greatest advantage [to doing research in Qatar], you have this large funding pool and less competition to access funds”, says Kim Critchley, dean of the University of Calgary's Qatar campus.The role of those branch campuses is changing as Qatar's education system evolves and matures, says Zacharia. When the first ones were established about 10 years ago, they were focused on undergraduate education. But now they are starting to become more research-intensive. “As we move in to the next phase, the idea is to have better synergies with the branch campuses to train graduate students”, says Zacharia.Qatar's research community is concentrated in Education City, a sprawling 14 km2 campus on the western outskirts of Doha. It houses Hamad bin Khalifa University and most of the international branch campuses, as well as the Qatar Foundation's own research institutes.Two of those institutes are dedicated to health and biomedical science. The Qatar Biomedical Research Institute works on more basic, foundational biomedical science, whereas the Sidra Medical and Research Center works on more clinically relevant, translational research. The Hamad Medical Corporation, the country's main health-care delivery organisation, also has its own research arm, focused on clinical practice.Education City is also home to the Foundation's Qatar Science and Technology Park, which aims to take innovations to market. Although it currently is mainly host to large multinational corporations, such as GE Medical, Zacharia says it is intended to incubate and develop small innovative firms. “Now that we have our anchor tenants, we will be able to attract the boutiques”, he says.The advantage to having such a concentrated community is it makes collaboration easier, says Schillings. “It is small enough that if you do bump into one another, it doesn't take a huge effort to make that work”, he says. “I am absolutely amazed in the 5 months I have spent here that I can now say I have a very good sense of who is who in life sciences and in health care.”Clear goalsAlthough it does fund some basic, curiosity-driven work, most of Qatar's biomedical research is directed towards supporting clear national priorities. “We don't have a large population, or a large scientific community, so we have to be focused in what we target”, says Zacharia. “That means problems that are relevant and tractable.”Thus diabetes and hypertension, which are major and growing problems in the Arab world, are one area of focus. Another is cancer—in particular breast cancer, which is also prevalent. The development of personalised medicine is a third priority, and one in which Qatar's small size might be a particular advantage, says Zacharia. “Because it is a small community, there is the potential to create a comprehensive genotypic understanding of the Qatari population”, he says. “This could help develop targeted health-care delivery.”Hiroaki Kitano, president of the Systems Biology Institute in Japan, says Qatar does indeed have an opportunity to become a leader in personalised medicine, if they can design a research programme that goes beyond simple genetic sequencing to an understanding of the clinical relevance of the data. From what he has seen, that is precisely what the Qataris have in mind. “They are trying to build this from the ground up, so they can design what they think is optimal”, he says. And, perhaps more importantly: “They have the money and the will to do it.”Schillings agrees that the Qatari Government is remarkably open to trying new ideas. “They are incredibly open to almost any suggestion, as long as it comes backed up with a good evidence base”, he says. “This is an innovation laboratory in some senses.”The long gameThe Qatari leadership, however, realises that none of the work is short term. It will take years, or even decades, and the first priority is to get more native Qataris involved in a research system that is still dominated by foreign expatriates.The country's wealth from natural gas, which is shared out among the population, means that many Qataris are content to work short hours in government jobs or make important social connections through the military. But Zacharia does not see that as an impediment to attracting more of them into research. “If better pay was the only metric, there would be no scientists in the US either”, he says. “People go into science because they have a passion for it, because of their curiosity, because their work is important for the future.”The country's universities and the QNRF are working to increase the number of Qataris who have that passion, starting with children's education, all the way up to PhD and post-doc level. They have an aggressive goal of increasing the number of Qataris receiving a PhD to around 1000 a year within 5 to 10 years. Eventually, says Zacharia, he would like half of the researchers at Qatari institutions to be Qataris, or locally born foreign residents. “If you have a 20-year horizon, that becomes a manageable goal”, he says.And Qatar is an excellent place to pursue a scientific career, he says. “There is strong support from the leadership—more so than anywhere else in the world—and compelling problems to keep you up at night.”Zacharia says that the ultimate, long-term model he has in mind for Education City is for it to become a campus like Berkeley in California, USA. “Berkeley did not happen overnight, it took a century”, he says. “In a decade or two we want to be the hub of the knowledge economy, not just for Qatar but for the whole region.”BO received funds from the Qatar Foundation to visit Qatar and attend their 2014 research conferenceView Large Image Figure ViewerDownload Hi-res image Download (PPT) Brian Owens visited Qatar to see how the tiny Gulf state is working to become a world leader in health and life sciences research as part of its broader national vision for 2030. Qatar might be small, but it has big ambitions in several realms, including science. The Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development is the organisation charged with delivering the country's research plans along with the rest of its National Vision for 2030, which aims to modernise the state and develop a strong knowledge economy to keep the country going when natural gas reserves eventually run out. The Foundation is a semi-private non-profit organisation, set up in 1995 to help transform Qatar from a petro-state into a leader in education, research, and the arts. It is headed by Sheika Moza bint Nasser Al Missned, one of the wives of the former emir, who takes a strong personal interest in the Foundation's work, according to those who work there. “She has a strong commitment to health care globally and locally”, says Egbert Schillings, chief executive of the World Innovation Summit for Health, which is held in Qatar's capital Doha each February. Health and life sciences is one of the four scientific priorities the Foundation is focused on to realise the national vision—alongside energy and water, cyber security, and environmental research—and some see it as the most important. “The life sciences are definitely where the accent is”, says Schillings. One stop shopWhen it comes to funding for biomedical research, the Qatar Foundation is pretty much the only game in town. It supports extramural research at Qatar's two domestic universities and nine branch campuses of international universities—six from the USA, and one each from France, the UK, and Canada. It also funds more directed research at several research institutes, and technology transfer and commercialisation in a new science and technology park.It is difficult, however, to determine how much money the Foundation is spending on science and research because financial transparency does not seem to be a high priority. The Foundation's annual reports give some examples of spending on research, but no detailed breakdown of budget lines, or even the total budget. Requests for further information were not answered in time for publication.Qatar has pledged to spend 2·8% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on science annually. Qatar's GDP in 2013 was more than US$200 billion, giving a notional science budget of nearly $6 billion, but it has not yet come close to meeting that target—not because of a lack of funds or political will, but because there simply are not enough scientists in the country to absorb that amount of money.Much of the funding is channelled through the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), a funding agency similar to the US National Science Foundation that was set up in 2006, which funds all fields of scientific research, supporting researchers from undergraduates up to senior scientists. In 2013, the QNRF awarded $120 million under its flagship National Priorities Research Programme; however, details about how much of that went to each national priority, including health research, are not available.QNRF funds nearly all of the extramural university research in the country, but a fairly large proportion also goes overseas. For each grant the principal investigator must be based in Qatar, but up to 35% of the money can be spent on research abroad. “That's unique among national research funders”, says Thomas Zacharia, senior vice-president of research and development at the Qatar Foundation.The fund's grants go to a limited number of universities. Qatar has two of its own: Qatar University, the older and more established of the two, and Hamad bin Khalifa University, which was established in 2013. Although Qatar University does do research, and wins the lion's share of grants from QNRF, its main focus is on undergraduate education and training. The newer institution is set to be more research-oriented, and will focus on graduate degrees. Two of the international branch campuses—Weill Cornell Medical College and the University of Calgary—also focus on health and biomedical science.The relatively small pool of applicants means that success rates are quite high. “I think that's the greatest advantage [to doing research in Qatar], you have this large funding pool and less competition to access funds”, says Kim Critchley, dean of the University of Calgary's Qatar campus.The role of those branch campuses is changing as Qatar's education system evolves and matures, says Zacharia. When the first ones were established about 10 years ago, they were focused on undergraduate education. But now they are starting to become more research-intensive. “As we move in to the next phase, the idea is to have better synergies with the branch campuses to train graduate students”, says Zacharia.Qatar's research community is concentrated in Education City, a sprawling 14 km2 campus on the western outskirts of Doha. It houses Hamad bin Khalifa University and most of the international branch campuses, as well as the Qatar Foundation's own research institutes.Two of those institutes are dedicated to health and biomedical science. The Qatar Biomedical Research Institute works on more basic, foundational biomedical science, whereas the Sidra Medical and Research Center works on more clinically relevant, translational research. The Hamad Medical Corporation, the country's main health-care delivery organisation, also has its own research arm, focused on clinical practice.Education City is also home to the Foundation's Qatar Science and Technology Park, which aims to take innovations to market. Although it currently is mainly host to large multinational corporations, such as GE Medical, Zacharia says it is intended to incubate and develop small innovative firms. “Now that we have our anchor tenants, we will be able to attract the boutiques”, he says.The advantage to having such a concentrated community is it makes collaboration easier, says Schillings. “It is small enough that if you do bump into one another, it doesn't take a huge effort to make that work”, he says. “I am absolutely amazed in the 5 months I have spent here that I can now say I have a very good sense of who is who in life sciences and in health care.” When it comes to funding for biomedical research, the Qatar Foundation is pretty much the only game in town. It supports extramural research at Qatar's two domestic universities and nine branch campuses of international universities—six from the USA, and one each from France, the UK, and Canada. It also funds more directed research at several research institutes, and technology transfer and commercialisation in a new science and technology park. It is difficult, however, to determine how much money the Foundation is spending on science and research because financial transparency does not seem to be a high priority. The Foundation's annual reports give some examples of spending on research, but no detailed breakdown of budget lines, or even the total budget. Requests for further information were not answered in time for publication. Qatar has pledged to spend 2·8% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on science annually. Qatar's GDP in 2013 was more than US$200 billion, giving a notional science budget of nearly $6 billion, but it has not yet come close to meeting that target—not because of a lack of funds or political will, but because there simply are not enough scientists in the country to absorb that amount of money. Much of the funding is channelled through the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), a funding agency similar to the US National Science Foundation that was set up in 2006, which funds all fields of scientific research, supporting researchers from undergraduates up to senior scientists. In 2013, the QNRF awarded $120 million under its flagship National Priorities Research Programme; however, details about how much of that went to each national priority, including health research, are not available. QNRF funds nearly all of the extramural university research in the country, but a fairly large proportion also goes overseas. For each grant the principal investigator must be based in Qatar, but up to 35% of the money can be spent on research abroad. “That's unique among national research funders”, says Thomas Zacharia, senior vice-president of research and development at the Qatar Foundation. The fund's grants go to a limited number of universities. Qatar has two of its own: Qatar University, the older and more established of the two, and Hamad bin Khalifa University, which was established in 2013. Although Qatar University does do research, and wins the lion's share of grants from QNRF, its main focus is on undergraduate education and training. The newer institution is set to be more research-oriented, and will focus on graduate degrees. Two of the international branch campuses—Weill Cornell Medical College and the University of Calgary—also focus on health and biomedical science. The relatively small pool of applicants means that success rates are quite high. “I think that's the greatest advantage [to doing research in Qatar], you have this large funding pool and less competition to access funds”, says Kim Critchley, dean of the University of Calgary's Qatar campus. The role of those branch campuses is changing as Qatar's education system evolves and matures, says Zacharia. When the first ones were established about 10 years ago, they were focused on undergraduate education. But now they are starting to become more research-intensive. “As we move in to the next phase, the idea is to have better synergies with the branch campuses to train graduate students”, says Zacharia. Qatar's research community is concentrated in Education City, a sprawling 14 km2 campus on the western outskirts of Doha. It houses Hamad bin Khalifa University and most of the international branch campuses, as well as the Qatar Foundation's own research institutes. Two of those institutes are dedicated to health and biomedical science. The Qatar Biomedical Research Institute works on more basic, foundational biomedical science, whereas the Sidra Medical and Research Center works on more clinically relevant, translational research. The Hamad Medical Corporation, the country's main health-care delivery organisation, also has its own research arm, focused on clinical practice. Education City is also home to the Foundation's Qatar Science and Technology Park, which aims to take innovations to market. Although it currently is mainly host to large multinational corporations, such as GE Medical, Zacharia says it is intended to incubate and develop small innovative firms. “Now that we have our anchor tenants, we will be able to attract the boutiques”, he says. The advantage to having such a concentrated community is it makes collaboration easier, says Schillings. “It is small enough that if you do bump into one another, it doesn't take a huge effort to make that work”, he says. “I am absolutely amazed in the 5 months I have spent here that I can now say I have a very good sense of who is who in life sciences and in health care.” Clear goalsAlthough it does fund some basic, curiosity-driven work, most of Qatar's biomedical research is directed towards supporting clear national priorities. “We don't have a large population, or a large scientific community, so we have to be focused in what we target”, says Zacharia. “That means problems that are relevant and tractable.”Thus diabetes and hypertension, which are major and growing problems in the Arab world, are one area of focus. Another is cancer—in particular breast cancer, which is also prevalent. The development of personalised medicine is a third priority, and one in which Qatar's small size might be a particular advantage, says Zacharia. “Because it is a small community, there is the potential to create a comprehensive genotypic understanding of the Qatari population”, he says. “This could help develop targeted health-care delivery.”Hiroaki Kitano, president of the Systems Biology Institute in Japan, says Qatar does indeed have an opportunity to become a leader in personalised medicine, if they can design a research programme that goes beyond simple genetic sequencing to an understanding of the clinical relevance of the data. From what he has seen, that is precisely what the Qataris have in mind. “They are trying to build this from the ground up, so they can design what they think is optimal”, he says. And, perhaps more importantly: “They have the money and the will to do it.”Schillings agrees that the Qatari Government is remarkably open to trying new ideas. “They are incredibly open to almost any suggestion, as long as it comes backed up with a good evidence base”, he says. “This is an innovation laboratory in some senses.” Although it does fund some basic, curiosity-driven work, most of Qatar's biomedical research is directed towards supporting clear national priorities. “We don't have a large population, or a large scientific community, so we have to be focused in what we target”, says Zacharia. “That means problems that are relevant and tractable.” Thus diabetes and hypertension, which are major and growing problems in the Arab world, are one area of focus. Another is cancer—in particular breast cancer, which is also prevalent. The development of personalised medicine is a third priority, and one in which Qatar's small size might be a particular advantage, says Zacharia. “Because it is a small community, there is the potential to create a comprehensive genotypic understanding of the Qatari population”, he says. “This could help develop targeted health-care delivery.” Hiroaki Kitano, president of the Systems Biology Institute in Japan, says Qatar does indeed have an opportunity to become a leader in personalised medicine, if they can design a research programme that goes beyond simple genetic sequencing to an understanding of the clinical relevance of the data. From what he has seen, that is precisely what the Qataris have in mind. “They are trying to build this from the ground up, so they can design what they think is optimal”, he says. And, perhaps more importantly: “They have the money and the will to do it.” Schillings agrees that the Qatari Government is remarkably open to trying new ideas. “They are incredibly open to almost any suggestion, as long as it comes backed up with a good evidence base”, he says. “This is an innovation laboratory in some senses.” The long gameThe Qatari leadership, however, realises that none of the work is short term. It will take years, or even decades, and the first priority is to get more native Qataris involved in a research system that is still dominated by foreign expatriates.The country's wealth from natural gas, which is shared out among the population, means that many Qataris are content to work short hours in government jobs or make important social connections through the military. But Zacharia does not see that as an impediment to attracting more of them into research. “If better pay was the only metric, there would be no scientists in the US either”, he says. “People go into science because they have a passion for it, because of their curiosity, because their work is important for the future.”The country's universities and the QNRF are working to increase the number of Qataris who have that passion, starting with children's education, all the way up to PhD and post-doc level. They have an aggressive goal of increasing the number of Qataris receiving a PhD to around 1000 a year within 5 to 10 years. Eventually, says Zacharia, he would like half of the researchers at Qatari institutions to be Qataris, or locally born foreign residents. “If you have a 20-year horizon, that becomes a manageable goal”, he says.And Qatar is an excellent place to pursue a scientific career, he says. “There is strong support from the leadership—more so than anywhere else in the world—and compelling problems to keep you up at night.”Zacharia says that the ultimate, long-term model he has in mind for Education City is for it to become a campus like Berkeley in California, USA. “Berkeley did not happen overnight, it took a century”, he says. “In a decade or two we want to be the hub of the knowledge economy, not just for Qatar but for the whole region.”BO received funds from the Qatar Foundation to visit Qatar and attend their 2014 research conference The Qatari leadership, however, realises that none of the work is short term. It will take years, or even decades, and the first priority is to get more native Qataris involved in a research system that is still dominated by foreign expatriates. The country's wealth from natural gas, which is shared out among the population, means that many Qataris are content to work short hours in government jobs or make important social connections through the military. But Zacharia does not see that as an impediment to attracting more of them into research. “If better pay was the only metric, there would be no scientists in the US either”, he says. “People go into science because they have a passion for it, because of their curiosity, because their work is important for the future.” The country's universities and the QNRF are working to increase the number of Qataris who have that passion, starting with children's education, all the way up to PhD and post-doc level. They have an aggressive goal of increasing the number of Qataris receiving a PhD to around 1000 a year within 5 to 10 years. Eventually, says Zacharia, he would like half of the researchers at Qatari institutions to be Qataris, or locally born foreign residents. “If you have a 20-year horizon, that becomes a manageable goal”, he says. And Qatar is an excellent place to pursue a scientific career, he says. “There is strong support from the leadership—more so than anywhere else in the world—and compelling problems to keep you up at night.” Zacharia says that the ultimate, long-term model he has in mind for Education City is for it to become a campus like Berkeley in California, USA. “Berkeley did not happen overnight, it took a century”, he says. “In a decade or two we want to be the hub of the knowledge economy, not just for Qatar but for the whole region.” BO received funds from the Qatar Foundation to visit Qatar and attend their 2014 research conference BO received funds from the Qatar Foundation to visit Qatar and attend their 2014 research conference BO received funds from the Qatar Foundation to visit Qatar and attend their 2014 research conference