Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 14 February 2010: From 15-17 February the British Council will bring together high-level education delegations from across the Gulf region to further the building of international research cultures that drive technological and economic growth.

The dialogue, hosted by United Arab Emirates University, will encourage the exchange of ideas and best practice between policy makers, academic and business leaders, and will address some of the key social, economic and political as well as organisational, financial and human resource issues which limit the development of a research culture, both within universities and at national and regional levels.  Delegates will work towards developing a research capacity building and commercialisation programme, which will enhance the sharing of knowledge and ideas between researchers in the UK and the Gulf region, develop skills which are important for international collaboration and lead to an increase in partnerships between UK and Gulf universities.

Participants include senior policy makers from Ministries of Education responsible for further and higher education, Vice Chancellors and Pro Vice Chancellors of universities and industry leaders.  Delegates from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Yemen and the UK will attend the dialogue.

Topics covered will include: transforming innovation into successful businesses, the role of university partnerships in developing research capacity and business outreach, lessons learnt from promoting research to underpin economic growth, and developing research collaborations for high regional impact.

The policy dialogue will be held under the auspices of the second UK Prime Minister's Initiative (PMI2), established in 2005 to represent the UK Prime Minister's commitment to internationalising UK education and the development of education partnerships with other countries.  A key strand of this initiative is the strengthening of strategic collaboration at policy and institutional level. 

Following the PMI2 funding of 14 Gulf-UK partnerships in March 2009, the event aims to: 

  • Share, for mutual benefit, experience between the UK and Gulf States, and within the region, of policies and strategies to:

    Enhance the national research base and strengthen research in the individual higher education institutions

  • Encourage collaboration and knowledge transfer between higher education institutions and industry in order to drive technological and economic growth

  • Provide opportunities to identify and build areas of future collaboration in research and technology transfer based on common agendas

  • Develop an informal network of senior policy makers and influential practitioners in research and technology transfer

-Ends-

The British Council is the UK's international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We work in over 100 countries worldwide to build engagement and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people. We work in the arts, education, science, sport and governance and last year we reached over 128 million people. We are a non-political organisation which operates at arm's length from government. Our total turnover in 2007/8 was £565 million, of which our grant-in-aid from the British government was £197 million. For every pound of grant we receive, we generate an additional £1.92.

In 2008-09, 14 research co-operation projects were funded between UK and the Gulf States. The funding, awarded under the auspices of the second Prime Minister's Initiative managed by the British Council, is designed to grow high quality mutually beneficial research co-operation between higher education institutions in the UK and the Gulf States. Funding is intended as pump priming to initiate and stimulate projects of excellence that have the potential to be sustainable in the long term. All projects demonstrated a commitment to mentoring researchers in the UK and Gulf States.

www.britishcouncil.org/me

Contact:
Tim Carnley
Education UK Promotion Manager, British Council UAE
050 6151607
tim.carnley@ae.britishcouncil.org   

Ashraf Shad
Editor, Research Affairs, United Arab Emirates University
050 723 6085
ashad@uaeu.ac.ae

© Press Release 2010