The technical committee of the Initiative on Developing Research Capacities and Human Resources (Ataa), which is responsible for creating a database for "research volunteers and volunteering research", has held its first meeting. It was attended by Dr. Hanadi Beheiri, Ataa Initiative director and Vice-dean of Scientific Research for Quality and Academic Accreditation, and Dr. Sumaya Sharaf, leader of Ataa Research Initiative, and the team assigned to create and support the UQU Research and Researchers Database. The team is made up of Dr. Norah Farooqi, Assistant Director of the Engineering Science Research Center, and Dr. Tahani al-Subait, the Ataa officer responsible for the Researchers Database Project, in addition to Hawazin al-Majnouni and Afnan al-Harbi (research assistants).

The meeting aimed to check the progress on Ataa Initiative. The technical committee made an integrated presentation that included:

• Analysis of system processes (by using Use Case);
• Data flow diagram (DFD) covering all levels between the user and the system;
• Designing of a database, depending on the entity-relationship (ER) model; and
• Presenting and discussing the first user interface (UI) model.

The presentation was followed by a discussion to determine the preliminary form of the interactive website of Ataa Initiative and the related database. Some elements in relation to the volunteers and volunteering research were omitted; others were added. Moreover, views were exchanged about the interface of the Initiative website, and some interactive processes intended to ensure easy access to statistics, and enable automated calculation of the researchers' volunteering hours. In doing so, the volunteering system project would be accomplished as scheduled.