Ministry of Education launches research talk series

DUBAI: The Ministry of Education will launch a research talk series, Innovation@uae Majlis, aimed at engaging the public and those interested with various academic research projects, with its inaugural talk on Feb.22 focusing on COVID-19 research.

The launch of the Innovation@uae Majlis has been scheduled to coincide with Innovation Week, taking place across the UAE from Feb.21-27 February.

The talk series focuses on advancing and supporting academic research in the country by giving a plaform to academic researchers leading innovative projects of relevance to both the UAE and internationally.

Engaging the public in various scientific topics of relevance to higher education institutions by utilising scientific research and creating an opportunity for the audience to pose applicable questions to researchers contributes to leveraging the public’s scientific literacy and to introducing them to research teams in various scientific fields. This can in turn provide researchers with additional ideas and feedback about their research.

Each month, a timely research topic will be selected and researchers based at accredited higher education institutes in the UAE will be invited to submit a two-minute talk video on their research relating to that topic.

The videos will be evaluated on how relevant and interesting the research is to the public, how well the project has been explained, and the talk’s overall comprehensibility, from which the top three will be selected.

The talks will be developed and delivered at a virtual talk event, to which students, academia, and members of the public are invited to atend and participate in question and answer sessions following each talk. The talks will be delivered in English and subtitled in Arabic.

“The Innovation@uae Majlis events will provide a platform for some of the UAE’S many researchers leading impactful and promising research projects. Showcasing their work in a public forum, using non-technical language, will enable young people and the general public to learn about and engage with scientific research, mutually benefiting all,” said Dr. Mohammad Al-mualla Undersecretary for Academic Affairs of the Ministry of Education of the UAE.

The first talk will be delivered by Dr Rifat Hammoudi, Professor at the College of Medicine and Head of the Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics Group at the University of Sharjah, on “Non-invasive Diagnostic Test for COVID-19 from Saliva.”