Saudi scientific studies up 217% in five years

The number of scientific studies on science and technology published in Saudi Arabia increased by 217 percent since the start of the national plan for science, technology and innovation between 2007 and 2011.
Prince Turki bin Saud bin Mohammed Al-Saud, vice president for the research institutes of King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), said this at the second Saudi International Electronics, Communications and Photonics Conference (SIECPC 2013).
The increase indicates that the market size of electronics, communications and photonics is increasing steadily. The market is exceeding trillions of dollars annually.
KACST is coordinating various research activities through the national plan for science, technology and innovation. It implemented several scientific studies through various institutes and centers, and jointly established centers of excellence with global centers of technical development.
It also set up established technology incubators in the fields of communications and information, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing and others in a bid to transfer technology to the industry and the private sector.
One initiative they hope to to embark upon is to make an electronic chip that would enable researchers, engineers and students in Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries to manufacture their own chipsets.
The head of the scientific organizing committee of the conference, Hatem Buheiry, said the committee had received 3,500 scientific studies from all over the world, of which 100 were accepted for publication and presentation at the conference after a group of 60 international specialists had reviewed them.
He said the conference comes within a series of events that KACST organizes to raise the level of competitiveness in the area of electronics, communications and photonics.