Qatar has placed a particular emphasis on academic research. The country has experienced an evolution of scientific output in different fields and this progress is one of the most important indicators for community and economic development. The Health Research Regulation Department at MOPH has conducted a comparative analysis of academic research performance in Qatar, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Middle East, Europe and the US, in collaboration with Imperial College Consultants for the years 2004-2014, Clarivate Analytics for 2014-2018 and MoPH for 2019.
For the first two reports, the analysis was performed across four research performance areas: (1) Overall Country Analysis, (2) Journal Subject Category Analysis, (3) University Analysis, and (4) Medicine and Health Sciences Analysis. For the second report (2014-2018) the analysis is complemented by providing an overview of clinical trials. The third report was developed by researchers of the Health Research Regulation Department at MOPH with the main aim to give an overview of the research performance of individual researchers and academic departments across different type of institutions, with an emphasis on biomedical sciences, during 2019 for the State of Qatar.
The 2004-2014 research assessment report provides insight into the performance of domestic research and compares it against that of other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, as well as regional, European, and American benchmarks. The second research assessment report contains analytical data to assess and evaluate the progress made by domestic researchers across various research areas for the period 2014-2018 and a comparative analysis of research performance against what we call as the Comparable Countries (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon).
In summary, the main aim of the three reports is to provide the research community, and specifically policy makers, with an analytical tool which can be used to assess and evaluate the progress made by domestic researchers across various research areas, most of which are medicine-related research categories. This will enable healthcare stakeholders to examine comparative trends in the national research performance profiles of Qatar, initiate improvements in policy and healthcare practice, improve academic outputs and global impact of domestic research programs, along with returns to Qatar of national investments in research.