Support for Research and Scholarly Activity
The DSRGS with the Administration of the university are dedicated to supporting researchers and students in their research activities. AAU has budgeted a 5% of the total operational expenditure to support faculty research, innovation, creative, and scholarly activities annually in order to maintain and boost the growth of its ongoing research capacity. This in turn, shall maximize the impact of research through the dissemination of knowledge and related activities. The university continues to enhance its educational research infrastructure by increasing efforts to pursue new external funding opportunities for faculty research. AAU strives to create a supportive environment to provide guidance and support to faculty members to help them attain excellence in research and creative accomplishments. To achieve such a goal, AAU encourages faculty members to collaborate with members of other colleges to create a strategy to support the research and scholarly activities. The major aim of the university research strategy is to provide all means of support for faculty members of all colleges to produce high quality research that leads to a continuous change towards a better society and improvement of human lives. Such support can be manifested in providing financial research funding and securing the required time for faculty members, supporting scientific publications, supporting participation and presentation in conferences and seminars, establishing databases of research productivity, rewarding research productivity, and providing research resources.
AAU provides financial research rewards for an unlimited number of published or accepted for publication materials. These financial rewards are regulated based on specific criteria that are announced to all faculty members, known as “Research Incentives Guidelines”. AAU has adopted a well-designed incentive system in order to encourage faculty members to publish high quality researches in eminent journals continuously. These incentives include a one-time, monetary award for each publication. Incentives are based on the quality and the rank of the journal, according to the journal Scopus CiteScore applied in the university Scientific Research Incentives System. Therefore, the faculty members are encouraged to publish in first tier journals indexed in outstanding databases (e.g. Scopus, WoS, etc.) and / or issued by a leading publisher like Elsevier, IEEE, Wiley, etc.
Furthermore, AAU has adopted the “Scientific Research Support Fund (SRSF)” as one of its key principle strategies to contribute to a productive society through the enhancement of research and development (R& D). Any faculty, student, and professional staff in the university is eligible to submit a proposal of his projected research to the Scientific Research Committee of the university for approval. If the proposal meets the SRSF criteria, the researcher will receive a grant for one year based on the researcher’s proposed budget of the project. The internal fund is expected to put researchers on the threshold of their projects and to enhance their opportunities for obtaining competitive external funding.
AAU is devoted to providing various sorts of facilities and equipment to facilitate scientific research. AAU ensures that the library holds the most updated sources of knowledge including printed and non-printed materials (e.g., journals, books, video/film/sound recordings; language labs, computer software, etc.). The administration of the university library makes every attempt to provide all materials needed by the university users for research and teaching purposes.
Diverse faculty members have joined the university since its establishment. All members are highly qualified and have been chosen after consideration of their research capability in addition to other criteria. AAU has set formal procedures for professional development. Such development includes workshops, seminars, lectures, summer courses, community activities and conferences. AAU provides support to research activities across all disciplines through increasing financial resources, supporting grant applications and all issues related to research management. The university provides the following forms of research support:
- Research rewards for an unlimited number of published or accepted for publication materials. These financial rewards are regulated based on specific criteria that are announced to all faculty members, known as “Research Incentives Guidelines”.
- AAU is committed to budgeting a 5% of the total operational expenditure to support faculty research, innovation, creative and scholarly activities annually.
- Financial support to faculty members participating in conferences (See Research policy support).
- Publication of a faculty research handbook and a detailed account of research activities.
- Providing researchers access to all kinds of research databases to enhance research quality and productivity.
- Spreading awareness about (external/internal) funded research opportunities.
- Announcing the date for accepting proposals for SRSF (twice a year) and any external-funded research projects opportunity through the DSRGS.
- Providing guidelines and procedures for securing SRSF. (See Research Support Policy)
- Aid researchers in finding funding from other external agencies/organizations and help the researchers in managing their funded projects.
- Providing administrative support and various sorts of facilities such as labs, space, access to online databases, and equipment to facilitate scientific research.