Wednesday, 13 May, 2009

The National Research Foundation (NRF) is a Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research initiative that helps promote research activity in private and public universities, colleges, centres, institutes and companies, by individuals or teams of researchers in UAE. NRF has been established to provide research leadership in the country and to provide funding support on a competitive basis to researchers in the country. NRF supports research projects that survive international peer review, contribute social and economic benefits to UAE, and enhance the development process in the country. The NRF has completed its evaluation of Expressions of Interest submitted in the 2009 round of competitive grants funding. Of just over 600 expressions of interest, only 179 have made it through to the final round 29.5% of the total. UOWD academic staff submitted 16 expressions of interest. Submitting an expression of interest required a considerable amount of work and reflects well on the University, as it substantiates our reputation as a strong research and teaching university. Six of these 16 expressions of interest have been invited to submit full proposals in the final round. This represents a success rate to this stage of 37.5% - considerably better than the national average. These six applications include eight full-time academic staff. This is the second stage in the competition for National Research Foundation funding. The Foundation has indicated that they intend to fund about 100 proposals, so the success rate for applications that have reaching the final stage will be about 56%. UOWD is helping these applicants prepare the strongest possible proposals. The six short-listed expressions of interest were submitted by the following: Dr Peter Hosie, Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Management Dr Payyazhi Jayashree, Assistant Professor Faculty of Business and Management with Dr Peter Hosie and Dr Michael Thorpe, Associate Professor,  Faculty of Finance and Accounting Dr Jawahitha Sarabdeen, Assistant Professor,  Faculty of Business and Management with Dr Gwendolyn Rodrigues, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Finance & Accounting Dr Catherine Todd, Assistant Professor,  Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering Dr Kamal Jaafar, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering Professor Rob Whelan President, UOWD