Achievements of the National Science, Technology and Innovation Plan Program at King Saud University (2008 – March 2014)

The program has supported 754 research projects at King Saud University up to the March 2014 round, involving 754 principal investigators, 1,695 co-investigators, 835 research assistants, 1,235 master’s and doctoral students, and 746 consultants from within and outside the University.

The University also participates in six operational projects: four health projects, the Diabetes Center, and the Science Oasis, in addition to the Aldhwayan Center for Technical Innovation.

Supported Projects of King Saud University (2008 – March 2014)

To increase the University’s contribution to the National Science, Technology and Innovation Plan, the program launches regular initiatives to introduce the Plan’s research programs and priorities. Alongside media campaigns in the University newspaper “Risalat Al-Jamiah”, email outreach to researchers, and the program’s web portal, which presents all of its activities, the program began organizing annual workshops that familiarize researchers with the Plan’s research programs, the supported projects, and the mechanisms for receiving and accepting research proposals. The first workshop organized by the program drew a large turnout of researchers, which was reflected positively in the number of proposals submitted in the following rounds, as shown in the following figure:

The number of supported projects also reflects the efforts made by the University, through the Science, Technology and Innovation Unit, to raise the quality of submitted research proposals. The key measures in this regard are:

• A preliminary review of research proposals by the program’s specialized committees, and communication with researchers to make the required amendments.
• Referring all research proposals to a dedicated committee to verify their originality using the Turnitin electronic system, then providing researchers with a detailed report of the results.
• Sending research proposals to Edanz-Springer, with which the program has contracted, for scientific review and language editing using the same review model adopted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which is accredited by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology for external review; the scientific committee then contacts researchers to make the required amendments. The program later contracted with Nature for language editing of proposed projects, aiming to raise the acceptance rate. This service was later discontinued, and the National Plan program discussed reinstating it given its impact on the rate and quality of accepted projects, as shown in the following figure:

Accepted Projects by Technology

The following figure shows the share of supported projects in each technology out of the total supported projects at King Saud University:

Colleges’ Contributions to the National Plan

The following figure shows the contribution of the University’s colleges to National Plan projects; the College of Science leads with the largest number of supported projects, followed by the College of Engineering, then the College of Food and Agriculture Sciences:

Strengthening the University’s Research Infrastructure

The National Plan made establishing an infrastructure for innovation in science and technology a primary goal of its first five-year plan. King Saud University’s accepted projects contributed to this goal through the equipment and materials acquired for them, which represent the largest share of the supported projects’ budget, as shown in the following figure:

Human Resources Participating in the Plan’s Projects

The University’s accepted projects increased the number of participants in the Plan across all categories, and the number of participating students grew markedly from one round to the next. This is mainly due to the requirement set by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology that at least one student take part in every research project, as well as the weight that external review gives to training when evaluating projects, as shown in the following figure:

Scientific Research and Technical Development Capacity Program

The Scientific Research and Technical Development Capacity Program includes health research; its health research sub-program comprises five health centers at King Saud University that continued to receive support under the program.

The following figure shows the main shares of expenditure items in the health centers’ budget:

Scientific Publishing and Patents

More than 1,200 scientific papers derived from the Advanced Strategic Technologies projects have been published in international journals indexed in ISI, in addition to about 150 papers published in international conference and workshop proceedings, and 35 patents have been registered.