King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Selects Three Universities for Center-In-Development Grants

Support links KAUST to King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, National Taiwan University and Utrecht University to body analysis accommodation through KAUST's Global Research Partnership (GRP). KAUST is committed to accepting a agitator of world-class research These grants accommodate a foundation of abutment for programs that will be generators of new breakthroughs that account Saudi Arabia and the apple in abounding allusive ways. We accept top expectations for these grantees We accept these are world-class analysis centers at an aboriginal date of development They reflect KAUST's mission of analysis addition to the ambiance and to bread-and-butter development. As such, they are anon affiliated to KAUST's interests in soil, baptize and bank resources, solar energy, and petrochemicals and polymers.

Dhahran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia -- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology's (KAUST) Global Research Partnership (GRP) today appear the alternative of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia, National Taiwan University, and Utrecht University in the Netherlands for Center-In-Development (CID) grants.

The grants will be adjourned by KAUST, a new graduate-level university accepting accustomed in Saudi Arabia, and are advised to accredit anniversary almsman university to accomplish new research and the accommodation for an interdisciplinary centermost of arete in specific areas of scientific and technological analysis that are a lot of accordant to KAUST's analysis priorities and its development.

"KAUST is committed to accepting a agitator of world-class research," said KAUST President-designate Choon Fong Shih. "These grants accommodate a foundation of abutment for programs that will be generators of new breakthroughs that account Saudi Arabia and the apple in abounding allusive ways."

"We accept top expectations for these grantees," KAUST Interim Vice President Dr. Mohamed Samaha added. "They are capital universities, and we attending advanced to years of growing calm with them in the accurate community. Their plan adds assortment and abyss to KAUST's analysis portfolio. And as they represent institutions from three altered continents, they aswell reflect KAUST's acceptance that world-class science is a all-around endeavor that have to cantankerous all-embracing and cultural boundaries to thrive."

"We accept these are world-class analysis centers at an aboriginal date of development," said Dr. Frank Press, above admiral of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and adviser to the alternative committee, KAUST acting carnality admiral for research. "They reflect KAUST's mission of analysis addition to the ambiance and to bread-and-butter development. As such, they are anon affiliated to KAUST's interests in soil, baptize and bank resources, solar energy, and petrochemicals and polymers."

The grants will abutment three Centers-in-Development:
 

King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals' (KFUPM) Transformative Research in Petrochemicals and Polymers, led by Principal Investigator Sulaiman Al-Khattaf, will focus on the development of beat catalysts and on the kinetics of key processes in bearing average petrochemicals as able-bodied as on polyolefin additives and processing polymeric membranes for ammunition cells. Efforts will be targeted at acclamation the accepted and approaching needs of the petrochemical industry in the Kingdom. KFUPM interdisciplinary teams alternating with all-embracing collaborators will accompany their own contributions to the success of the analysis and plan plan. KAUST acceptance will accept an befalling to participate in this applied activated analysis alpha in 2009. This accolade will accommodate new avenues for R&D at KFUPM and for the training of acceptance who may move to KAUST afterward graduation. National Taiwan University's (NTU) Solar Energy Research Center (SERC), led by Principal Investigator Bin-Juine Huang, will serve as the belvedere for amalgam above solar activity analysis efforts underway at NTU, acclamation both activated analysis and technology development. The SERC will focus on arrangement integration, product-oriented analysis and development, and addition in arrangement enhancement for architecture of solar-assisted air conditioning, heating, desalination, and LED lighting applications in buildings. NTU will accommodate barter opportunities for both adroitness and acceptance from KAUST and will abetment KAUST with the enactment of a SERC on the KAUST campus. Students from KAUST will be acceptable at NTU for training in applied architecture of solutions to absolute industry problems. They will aswell abetment with the acclimation of absolute energy-saving, solar-assisted architecture heating and cooling devices, as able-bodied as LED lighting for operation in Saudi Arabia's arduous climate. Utrecht University's Center for Soil, Water and Coastal Resources (SOWACOR), led by Principal Investigator Philippe Van Cappellen, will administer the analysis and development capabilities of 14 European and all-embracing organizations and institutions in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, and France to the acceptable use of soil, water, and bank resources. Real-world validation and appliance of beat concrete and biological approaches for baptize analysis and clay remediation, including the abatement of baneful metals and amoebic contaminants, will accommodate important abetment to KAUST in its antecedence antecedent areas for analysis focus. SOWACOR will act as a clearinghouse for ideas, people, and ability amid the accommodating institutes in Europe and KAUST, and advice to accent research, education, training, collective fieldwork, and beat in abutment of KAUST's mission. In accession to abbreviate courses, training, and collaborative analysis projects involving KAUST adroitness and students, SOWACOR will abetment with the design, instrumentation, and operation of a KAUST ecology anchor in Saudi Arabia.
Each KAUST GRP Center-in-Development angle was advised in detail and denticulate by amid 5 and seven added reviewers fatigued from the association of bookish and automated advisers about the world. A absolute of 65 all-embracing experts contributed reviews to the Center and CID competitions.

The GRP Technical Advisory Committee and admiral evaluating and advising proposals for allotment included:
 

Omar Abdul-Hamid, Ph.D., manager, Saudi Aramco Research and Development Center Roland Chin, Ph.D., assistant of computer science and carnality admiral of Academic Affairs, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Ahmed Ghoniem, Ph.D., Ronald C. Crane (1972) Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Steve Koonin, Ph.D., arch scientist, British Petroleum, and above provost, California Institute of Technology. Michael Thomashow, Ph.D., university acclaimed assistant and director, MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory, Michigan State University David Tirrell, Ph.D., analysis chair, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology Fawwaz Ulaby, Ph.D., provost-designate, KAUST, and Arthur Thurnau Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan
Dr. Frank Press, above admiral of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Jack Breese, a above administrator at Microsoft Research, served as admiral to the panel.

The alternative of the CIDs was based on belief including accurate merit, authoritative and administration plan, the abeyant to coact in a aggregation environment, and the absolute appliance and allowances of the proposed analysis to KAUST's aboriginal development and analysis priorities--including activity and environment, abstracts science and engineering, biosciences, and activated mathematics and computational science.

About the Global Research Partnership (GRP) and KAUST
The GRP is advised to serve KAUST's adorning and abiding sustainability needs by establishing able links with the absolute all-around analysis enterprise. KAUST launched the GRP in August 2007 as a allotment of its action to body the University's analysis capacity. The GRP action begins with a ample address of proposals and relies on a competitive, absolute associate analysis to baddest and armamentarium analysis agitated out at the proposing academy on the base of above and appliance to KAUST's mission.

Under the GRP, there are three capital programs: Investigators, which are grants for alone scientists arch baby groups of researchers; Centers and Centers-in-Development, which absorb assorted board arch commutual curve of research; and Fellows, for post-doctoral researchers.

In March 2008, KAUST awarded the aboriginal annular of its GRP Investigator grants to twelve awful able scientists and engineers from about the world. KAUST expects to advertise its grants to Fellows in May 2008.

Also in May, KAUST will host its aboriginal acquisition of Investigators, Centers, Centers-in-Development and Fellows at the aboriginal GRP Technical Symposium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The accident will acceptable new advisers and advisers to Saudi Arabia in a appropriate appointment to authorize relationships and collaborations a allotment of them and added associates of the KAUST network.

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is accepting complete in Saudi Arabia as an international, graduate-level analysis university committed to alarming a new age of accurate accomplishment in the Kingdom, above the arena and about the globe. As an independent, merit-based institution, KAUST will accredit top advisers from about the apple to plan calm to break arduous accurate and abstruse problems. The KAUST all-around analysis and apprenticeship arrangement will abutment assorted talents both on its campus and at added arch universities and analysis institutions through collaborative analysis agreements, grants, and apprentice scholarship programs. The amount campus, amid on added than 36 actor aboveboard meters on the Red Sea at Thuwal, is set to accessible in September 2009. For added advice about KAUST, appointment http://www.kaust.edu.sa.

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Hosts Global Research Partnership (GRP) Technical Symposium

Global Research Partnership (GRP) Technical Symposium marks the aboriginal acquisition of KAUST GRP accolade recipients from about the world.

Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia -- On May 28, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) assured its first Global Research Partnership (GRP) Technical Symposium, "Frontiers and Opportunities in Science and Engineering: The Contribution of the Global Research Partnership to KAUST, Saudi Arabia, and the World."

The accident accustomed to Saudi Arabia 19 world-renowned advisers and advisers afresh awarded grants through the GRP, a all-around analysis abutment affairs advised to authorize able links amid the University and the absolute all-around analysis enterprise.

His Excellency Minister Ali Ibrahim Al-Naimi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and Chairman of the KAUST Board of Trustees said, "KAUST has boarded on a different journey, aggressive by the adventurous eyes to authorize a new abode of acumen and actualize a modern, all-around analysis university. This is the alpha of a new era of all-around bookish and analysis collaborations that are basic to authoritative King Abdullah's eyes a reality."

The two-day accident included a appointment to the KAUST campus site, an accolade celebration featuring a keynote by Mark Yudof, president-designate, University of California, and a abounding day of presentations focused on KAUST's primary analysis areas: resources, activity and environment; abstracts science and engineering; bioscience and bioengineering; and activated mathematics and computational science.

GRP Investigators, Centers, and Centers-in-Development admission awardees presented their angle and latest analysis of all-around acceptation with accurate accent to Saudi Arabia and the region, including baptize desalination, renewable and acceptable next-generation activity sources, genomics of salt-tolerant plants, abiding and environmentally affable architecture materials, acceptable account of hydrocarbons, bargain high-efficiency solar technology, and the appliance of computational science to animal bloom and biotechnology.

In his aperture remarks, Professor Choon Fong Shih, president-designate of KAUST, said, "the Global Research Partnership is one of KAUST's key initiatives to body avant-garde all-around alliances at assorted levels, from the alone to the institutional. This cross-disciplinary access transcends communities, cultures and continents, bringing the best aptitude calm to appoint in absolutely groundbreaking science."

"By acknowledging cutting-edge analysis at top universities through the GRP," he added, "KAUST is authoritative a bright account of its ambition to be a above actor in the all-around barter of knowledge. The GRP Centers and Centers-in-Development, as able-bodied as KAUST Investigators and Fellows, will abode the admirable challenges of our times, for the advancement of the animal condition."

Nadhmi Al-Nasr, KAUST's acting president, added that "today's accident marks addition cogent anniversary in KAUST's development. The GRP will advice abode KAUST on the apple map of analysis in a different way to become a above contributor in specific analysis areas."

About the Global Research Partnership (GRP) and KAUST

The Global Research Partnership (GRP) pursues KAUST's amount mission of carefully affiliated alum apprenticeship and analysis in all-around issues of accurate accent to Saudi Arabia and the region. Especially during KAUST's startup, this analysis affairs is a primary apparatus by which analysis and alum apprenticeship of the accomplished above is abutting to - and affianced to abutment - KAUST's development as a world-class alum analysis university. The Global Research Partnership is a antecedent investment by KAUST as it moves rapidly to become the aboriginal anew accustomed 21st aeon university.

The GRP began in August 2007 with a ample address of analysis proposals in areas of accent to KAUST. The alternative action relied on a world-standard aggressive associate analysis action to accept the accomplished above proposals of absolute appliance to KAUST's mission. The grants will abutment analysis agitated out at the called institutions in three above programs: KAUST Centers and Centers-in-Development, KAUST Investigators, and KAUST Research Fellows (i.e., post-doctoral researchers).

In selecting the Centers, Investigators, and Fellows to be funded, above of the proposed research, appliance to KAUST missions, and the clue almanac and abeyant of the proposed alone or aggregation were the arch belief in associate evaluation.

Another analytical agency in associate appraisal was the role that the called analysis activities can play in the development of the analysis and apprenticeship programs at KAUST. This addition of GRP analysis to KAUST's on-campus development may crop abounding forms. GRP-supported faculty, alum students, post-doctoral researchers, and abstruse agents may participate in or lead:

 

A commutual analysis centermost at KAUST to actualize a commutual or accumulated analysis program; Development of a different analysis ability at KAUST to accredit new analysis or to serve as a "user center" for analysis in the region; Private-sector assurance a allotment of the GRP institution, KAUST, and alone companies or consortia of companies with aggregate analysis and/or alum educational needs; or Educational activities or exchanges to the advantage of acceptance at both KAUST and the GRP academy (for example, GRP institutions will alternation a accumulation of abstruse agents or accept their alum acceptance do a circling in a KAUST lab in Saudi Arabia as allotment of their doctoral training).
The GRP is aswell advised to plan in a accommodating appearance with added KAUST collaborative programs, including the Academic Excellence Alliance and appropriate bookish and automated partnerships, to facilitate KAUST's barrage as a 21st century, globally affiliated institution.

About KAUST
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is accepting complete in Saudi Arabia as an international, graduate-level analysis university committed to alarming a new age of accurate accomplishment in the Kingdom, in the arena and about the globe. As an independent, merit-based institution, KAUST will apply abounding of the best practices from arch analysis universities and accredit top advisers from about the apple and above all cultures to plan calm to break arduous accurate and abstruse issues. The KAUST all-around analysis and apprenticeship arrangement will abutment assorted talents, both on its campus and at added premiere universities and analysis institutions, through collaborative analysis agreements, grants, and apprentice scholarship programs. KAUST will be merit-based, accessible to men and women from all cultures about the world, and absolute by an independent, amaranthine Board of Trustees. The amount campus, amid on added than 36 actor aboveboard meters on the Red Sea at Thuwal, is set to accessible in September 2009. For added advice about KAUST, appointment www.kaust.edu.sa.