Students and researchers have a final opportunity to submit abstracts of their work to the Joint Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum and Arab Expatriate Scientists Network Symposium, taking place this October. During the three-day event, awards will be presented for the best research programmes, student research projects, and poster presentations, Qatar Foundation said. A panel comprising international experts and industry leaders from the Arab Expatriate Scientists Network will judge and select the four most impressive entries in each of the three categories. Research topics must fall within the country’s national research priorities, including health and biomedicine, energy and environment, computing and information technology, behavioural and social sciences, arts, humanities, and Islamic Studies. Successful candidates will be presented with a grant to allow them to continue their research projects. Students will also be given monetary awards for the best oral and poster presentations. Qatar Foundation President of Research and Development Faisal Al Suwaidi said, “Each succeeding year, Qatar’s research culture becomes more vibrant, whether in hospitals and university labs or in the field, and this will be reflected in the quantity and quality of work presented at the forum this year.” Last year there was an increase by 35% in the number of submissions, he added. Many groundbreaking research projects was presented at last year’s forum, including studies on cancer, humanoid robots, natural language processing, changing patterns of Qatari family formation, and an analysis of water desalination processes The Annual Research Forum and the Arab Expatriate Scientists Network are Qatar Foundation initiatives based on Qatar’s national strategy to foster a community of research excellence and world-class education.