01-10-2019

Oman Observer

The Research Council (TRC) Board on Monday discussed several topics and reviewed reports related to the council’s various programmes and projects, including the progress reports of the preparation of the National Strategy for Research and Development (NSRD) 2020-2040.

Chaired by His Highness Sayyid Shihab bin Tareq al Said, Adviser to His Majesty the Sultan and Chairman of TRC, the meeting was attended by representatives of a number of academic and private institutions members. Convened at the Innovation Park Muscat, it was the TRC board’s second meeting this year.

The NSRD progress reports contained the stages of the project, outputs of the workshops, efforts made to align the priorities of the NSRD with Oman Vision 2040 and the future steps planned towards delivering the final draft of the strategy in December.

The meeting also reviewed a report on the efficiency and applicability-based institutional research support programme, which has been previously approved by TRC board through the restructuring of the Block Funding Programme in its second meeting in 2018. This programme funded 21 academic and research institutions last year and it is currently reviewing the research support proposals for this year.

In addition, a presentation was delivered on the progress and work outputs of the youth values research project under the Social Observatory Research Programme (SORP).

The board also reviewed the developments of the restructure of TRC, which aims to develop the performance efficiency of TRC’s various programmes and projects to cope with the requirements of the current and future stages.