Manama: Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) has made history by becoming the first agency from the Middle East and North Africa region to be elected as a full member of the Belmont Forum.
The Belmont Forum, a group of high-level representatives from global funding agencies, is the main international joint-funding initiative on research into the impact and mitigation of global environmental climate change.
The Forum brings together entities from the USA, the EU, Japan, China, Brazil, South Africa, and India, to design and fund research programmes for implementation at a global level.
Following its elections last week in the Norwegian capital Oslo, QNRF, a member of Qatar Foundation Research and Development (QF R&D), was selected to host the next annnual meeting of the organisation, to be be held in Qatar in 2016.
QNRF continues to support Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development on its mission to help promote and develop Qatar as a hub of research excellence, and as a member of the Belmont Forum, will link Qatar’s research community to top international research projects.
“QNRF is the first agency from the Middle East and North Africa region to join the consortium and is extremely proud to be part of the Belmont Forum,” Abdul Sattar Al Taie, QNRF Executive Director, said. “Qatar now joins 19 other nations to address the global challenge of climate change, a topic particularly relevant to the country and the Gulf region, as environmental sustainability remains high on the agenda of Qatar National Research Strategy.”
Joining the Belmont Forum will open up further mutually beneficial opportunities for collaboration between Qatar-based and global research institutions to achieve sustainable, long-term solutions through knowledge sharing and technology transfer, he added.
QNRF has participated in this year’s call for proposals on the development of better regional modelling of the climate and its impact and, in particular, to helping prevent extreme weather events, such as dust storms.
