Academy
Sharjah Police officials announce details of the Scientific Research Award 2022. Image Credit: Supplied

Sharjah: The Academy of Police Sciences in Sharjah has announced the opening of registration for the Scientific Research Award in its third session in 2022.

This was announced during a press conference held by the academy at its headquarters here today, in the presence of Major General Saif Al Zari Al Shamsi, Commander-in-Chief of Sharjah Police and Vice-Chairman of the Academy Council; Brigadier General Muhammad Khamis Al Othmani, Director General of the Academy; Lt Col Abdullah Al Hayyi, Director of the Officers College Administration, and a number of representatives from print and electronic media in the country.

Major General Al Shamsi stressed during the conference that the announcement of the launch of the third session of the award came after the great success it achieved in its first and second sessions and the great demand for participation from researchers and specialists from inside and outside the UAE.

Major General Al Shamsi said that launching the award comes following the support and directives of His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, and the directives of the Academy Council headed by Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler of Sharjah.

The award comes within the framework of the academy’s continued efforts to enhance the quality of scientific research and its clear approach to encourage excellence and creativity and support its leading role as one of the security educational institutions supporting scientific research.

Major General Al Shamsi pointed out that the idea of the award is to prepare scientific research in bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programmes, in addition to supporting research recommendations that address social and security phenomena at the state level in general and in the emirate of Sharjah in particular.

Brigadier Al Othmani indicated that the award aims to encourage researchers to continue with their research activities and initiatives, support a culture of creativity and innovation, present research ideas to achieve excellence and leadership in the performance of the police, spread the culture of scientific research, raise the quality of research outputs in the country, conduct research related to studies at the Sharjah Police Academy and adopt the results and recommendations of the winning research and circulating it within the departments of the police force, as well as incorporating it in the undergraduate programmes and in scientific research.

Brigadier Al Othmani announced that the Academy Council, headed by the Crown Prince of Sharjah, directed this year to increase the budget for scientific research to Dh2 million in support of the academy’s efforts.

Brig. Al Othmani explained that the award in its current session will address a number of important and emerging issues and areas. The first area deals with cybersecurity and confronting cyberattacks in achieving security sustainability in the UAE and cybersecurity challenges in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

The second area deals with the application of metaverses in security work, which is represented in the impact of virtual reality on security institutions and the pros and cons of metaverse in security work and meeting the challenges of virtual reality.

The third area sheds light on the security and legislative aspects related to certain crimes. This includes social media, types of security risks resulting from the misuse of social media, the legislative aspects of dealing with crimes resulting from social media and raising community awareness on the dangers resulting from the misuse of social media.

Combating drug crimes is also part of the research scope. This includes the concepts, types, effects, images, size and direction of using illegal substances in the UAE. This will also discuss the role of schools and universities in controlling the menace of drugs and narcotics-control strategy at the national, regional and international levels.

Lt Colonel Abdullah Al Hayyi stressed that the last edition of the award had witnessed an increase in the number of entries by 30 per cent compared to the first edition. The current edition of the award will include a new condition — inclusion of reference citations from the Scopus database, which is one of the most important and largest databases in the world.