The United Arab Emirates University to Partner with 3572 International Educational Institutions 4

(MENAFN- Mid-East.Info) Al Ain: The United Arab Emirates University continues promoting its leading role in scientific research through building a comprehensive sustainable research system by collaborating with several local and international governmental institutions, universities, and research centers in various research projects. The research partnerships with these institutions and authorities aim at consolidating and supporting the national strategies and priorities by finding scientific solutions to concrete societal challenges. The research partnerships have made great breakthroughs reflected in the quality of research outputs and UAEU's academic reputation worldwide. The university has promoted cooperation in research by building a research infrastructure including highly equipped scientific laboratories that help researchers conduct high-quality scientific research.

Prof. Ahmed Murad, Associate Provost for Research at UAEU, stressed that research partnerships are among the strategic priorities of The Office of the Associate Provost for Research. The research cooperation aims at promoting the university's leadership in this field through an ambitious plan that helps the university to boost its international ranking position. Research partnerships including collaborative research projects whose scientific outputs enhances publishing possibilities in prominent international journals and magazines. The university also looks to expand research cooperation with governmental and private institutions operating in the country as part of its strategic role in providing innovative scientific solutions to the challenges the local community face in various fields, including humanities, social sciences, science, engineering, technology, medicine, and health.

He explained that the university had promoted collaboration with local, regional, and international universities and research centers via joint research projects through which UAEU's researchers and faculty members cooperated with researchers and scientists of 3,572 universities and research centers or institutes from 71 countries distributed over six of the world's major regions: Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, and South America, during the period from 2016-2021. UAEU's researchers and faculty members have collaborated with researchers and scientists from 1,200 European universities or research centers, while research cooperation with the Asia-Pacific region included 1030 universities or research centers. UAEU's researchers and scientists have also collaborated with researchers and scientists from 590 North American universities or research centers. The university has expanded its research partnerships; its faculty members and researchers cooperate with 388 universities and research centers from the Middle East, 242 universities or research centers from Africa, and 122 universities or research centers from South America.

Prof. Ahmed Ali Murad pointed out that expanding research partnerships has promoted the university's cooperation network, which in turn reflected positively on its research production rates and international reputation. This constructive cooperation led to the production of 4,629 research papers during the period from 2016-2021. According to Scopus data during that period, Middle East's universities and research centers ranked first in research production with 1944 research papers published at a rate of up to 5 research papers per each research cooperation, while research cooperation with researchers from the Asia Pacific region resulted in the production of 1,751 research papers at a rate of up to 1.7 research papers per each collaboration. Cooperation with researchers from Europe also led to the production of 1,474 research papers at a rate of 1.23 papers for each research collaboration. In addition, research cooperation with scientists and researchers from North America resulted in publishing 1,060 research papers from 2016 to 2021, equivalent to 1.8 papers per collaboration. The university's research cooperation has expanded to reach universities and research institutes from Africa and South America, where researchers from African universities collaborated with researchers from the UAEU to publish 759 research papers, equivalent to 3.14 papers per cooperation. In comparison, the research partnerships between researchers from South America and UAEU resulted in 168 research papers or 1.4 research papers per collaboration.

Cooperation with the University of Washington in the United States of America resulted in the production of 89 research papers with a total number of 18,045 citations, while cooperation with the Canadian University of Toronto yielded 17,616 citations from 80 research papers. The UAEU cooperates with 974 research, academic, government, and private institutions in the United Arab Emirates and 782 academic and research institutions in the United States of America. Moreover, researchers from the UAEU's College of Medicine and Health Sciences contributed to publishing 130 research papers in collaboration with Tawam Hospital between 2016-2021.

Prof. Ahmed Murad, Associate Provost for Research at UAEU, explained that the university seeks to build strategic partnerships with local and international government bodies and institutions to contribute to the progress and development the country is witnessing in all fields. Between 2018 and 2020, UAEU has cooperated with local and international institutions in 120 research projects. These projects focus on The state of the infrastructure and the development of a scale of professional inclinations, the development of robots for several government institutions,  groundwater dynamics, the availability of shelters in times of crisis, the study of oases, the determination of the biomass of palm trees, the study of non-traditional alternatives to water drainage, modeling of the current situation and scenarios of climate change in the country, Genomics studies, traffic and road data analysis, groundwater well monitoring, engineering studies related to materials. The university's cooperative research projects have varied due to the diversity of its scientific disciplines; UAEU's researchers conducted studies on the sustainability of the green area, the plant system, combating desertification, the future of recreational and public service facilities, diabetes and heart diseases, measuring the awareness and culture of society on emergency management, crises and disasters, and evaluation of  academic advisors, Carbon dioxide storage, development of rice harvesting in arid areas, , evaluation and reuse of water associated with oil-gas wells, space science, genetic studies, and biotechnology.

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