Academic research is the foundation upon which countries build their ambitions. However, academic researchers say the UAE and the Middle East are lagging behind developed countries, consequentially stunting their own growth.
"Every country in the world needs to build its ambitions on something concrete but without academic research this won't happen," said Dr Abdullah Al Shamsi, Vice-Chancellor of the British University in Dubai (BUiD). "You can't separate the future of a country from research," he said.
"Decision makers need to realise that if they ignore research, they ignore the global competitiveness of their country; and if they ignore the competition, they become ignorant in comparison to other countries," he added.
Why it's needed
The UAE ranked 45th out of 146 countries in a 2009 Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) report by the World Bank Institute — coming second in second place after Qatar among Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.
The KEI was based on four pillars: economic incentive, education, innovation and information and communication technologies (ICT).
Of the four pillars the UAE ranked 79th for education followed by Oman and Saudi Arabia in the GCC.
"Research is the cultivation and dissemination of knowledge — knowledge made in the UAE and made available internationally," said Dr Abdullah Esmail Abdullah, Senior Executive Adviser at the Emirates Foundation and Professor of Electrical Engineering at UAE University. "If we want to develop as a nation we need to compete with research, if we don't we will stay behind," Al Shamsi added.
Evident in the name and purpose, academic research is rooted in academia, within the world of knowledge and learning, known to some as university.
The problem
It is mandatory for professors to engage in academic research. A substantial number of research papers annually published, originating at universities, elevate the education standard of the institutions on a whole.
More published papers equal a higher international ranking, said Dr Christina Gitsaki, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) Chair in Applied Research in Education at the Sharjah Higher Colleges of Technology.
"If federal and private universities in the UAE want to become on par with their international counterparts, then they need to encourage their staff to do research," said Gitsaki. "[Because] right now research coming out of the Arab world is not something the international arena is interested in. The standard of research here [in the UAE and Middle East] is much lower than it is in the Western world," she added.
Lack of funding is also a problem when it comes to establishing a solid research infrastructure she said.
Funding
In the UAE there are two federal bodies that award funding for scholarly research — the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the Emirates Foundation.
However, the two-year-old NRF has yet to receive its funding to subsequently award funds to academics.
"Funding is an issue right now," said Kathleen Furr, Research and Administrative Officer at the NRF. "The economic downturn hit the UAE and funding for all areas, not just research is on hold….we are still trying to iron out the funding with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Higher Education," she added.
Gitsaki says that time, money and support are fundamental to establishing a solid research infrastructure in the UAE.
"Academics need support, if they are teaching 20 hours a week there is simply no time for them to engage in scholarly research," she said.
Yet, Abdullah believes it is everybody's responsibility to ensure academic research becomes part of the federal agenda.
"Currently there is no government policy on research," he said. "Bodies such as the NRF depend on federal budgets which can be dangerous, because funding should not only come from the government," he added.
"Philanthropists, the wealthy, industries and the government should all be involved; because if we can guarantee a steady flow of money for research, building the infrastructure is easy," Abdullah added.
Benefits
"Research solves problems in society," Abdullah said. "If we want to solve local problems we must do it with homegrown research, focusing on real-life local case studies," he said.
"During the last five years the country has spent so much money on real estate," Al Shamsi said. "Is there any research going on, on how this infrastructure is affecting our economy? Is there a vision of what we need to do to best utilise these structures, or are they just going to remain empty? Is there a body or a centre looking into such things? I don't know," he added.
"All these roads we are building need maintenance, how will we preserve and protect them? Because without research we won't be able to," Al Shamsi.
Apart from infrastructure the areas lacking scientific research in the UAE are: health and medicine, social and human development, economics, business and management, food and water security, education and the training of nationals, as well as transport, logistics and urban planning, said Dr Kenneth Wilson, Director of the NRF.
"We know the country has a large private sector and the public sector is reducing in size," said Al Shamsi. "We also know that we have more than 200 nationalities in the country. There are challenges facing nationals as well as expatriates and international students. How can we deal with all these issues?" he added. "Shall we deal with them on an ad hoc basis or put current plans and design the future?" Al Shamsi said.
