The King Abdullah University for Science and Technology announced that scholarships worth more than SR5.7 million have been allocated to 32 proposed research projects for researchers from different Saudi universities and colleges, according to KAUST spokesman Mansour Al-Otaibi.

He said scientific research takes the lion’s share in the scholarship program at the university, but it is only a small part compared to the special support to the national plan in science and technology.

Al-Otaibi said there are 14 technical strategies in Saudi Arabia. They include: Water technologies, energy, advanced materials, nanotechnology, biotechnology, oil, gas, space, aviation, satellites, information technology, telecommunications, photonics, environment, agriculture, health and medicine, building and construction, mathematics and physics.

He said many research projects are valued at about SR1 billion.

“The objective is to make sure Saudi Arabia will be able to become self-sufficient in these technologies that generate fixed income,” Al-Otaibi said. “This is especially so in the field of water technologies, which is a principle topic in the university because of the scarcity of water in addition to energy technologies, advanced materials and biotechnology.”

He added the national plan is laying down a time-period for the next 20 years so that Saudi Arabia will become a pioneering state on the level of the Middle East and Asia.

“The plan is not only concerning the King Abdulaziz City, but includes 42 government parties, research centers, universities and other ministries within the framework of the National Comprehensive Plan for Science and Technology,” he said.

He said at the beginning of every year the fields that will be supported through the program are announced to researchers in universities. Higher studies and research projects are evaluated by international bodies and “extremely high” standards are placed to increase the levels of supported research, stating there exists in residence international specialists for these.

The spokesman stressed there is research theses all have objectives.

“We won’t support a research project for its own sake and all of the research in the King Abdulaziz for Science and Technology City is directed to numerous fields like medicine, agriculture and engineering, where results have to be obtained,” he said.

He added: “There are research projects which don’t end in results, and some have the results but need further research. Scientific research does not end in a fixed time-period and can be presented to gain more backing financial from the city.”

KAUST has allocated SR5.798.315 supporting 32 proposed projects presented by researchers from different Saudi universities and colleges through the small scholarships program for 2013. This is for the first stage and is supervised by the Public Administration for Research Scholarships.

This amount has been distributed in numerous scientific fields with allocating SR2.34 million for science foundation, SR399,000 for medical research, SR1.75 million for agricultural research, SR1.1 million for engineering, and SR198,000 for humanity subjects.