Dr. Bakri bin M'atooq Assas,Umm Al-Qura University President, launched the Leadership Preparation Program in Scientific Research on Monday at King Abdulaziz Supportive Hall. The ceremony was attended by Dr. Thamer bin Hemdan Al-Harby, the University’s Vice President for Graduate Studies and Scientific Research; Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Ahdal, the Dean of the Deanship of Scientific Research; Dr. Faisal Allaf, the CEO of Wadi Makkah Company for Technology; Dr. Ali bin Mohamed Al-Sha’ari, the Dean of the Institute of Research and Consultation Studies; and the Vice Deans of the Deanship of Scientific Research.

The event began with a recitation for some verses from the Holy Qur’an, followed by a speech for Dr. Thamer bin Hemdan Al-Harby, the University’s Vice President for Graduate Studies and Scientific Research, in which he noted that the Deanship of Scientific Research, since its establishment, has considered raising the efficiency of the researchers from the teaching staff members and postgraduate students. That was being done through spreading the culture of the scientific research quality and training the beneficiaries on writing research proposals and on the elements of success, besides supporting researches so that the system of research consideration would be completed for the deanship’s work fields, including the research administration supported in the individuals and centers’ scholarships, in addition to the research groups and supervising the research chairs.

Dr. Thamer added that the deanship has held around 50 training courses for about 800 beneficiaries. The deanship also launched a new series of training programs, in which the Leadership Preparation Program in Scientific Research comes on the top to be the first specialized program for qualifying the leaderships and sharpening their skills. He pointed out that the program aims at raising the efficiency of the administrative leadership in the field of scientific research in a way that ensures the consistency between the vision of the institution in the scientific research and the academic programs. It also seeks promoting the mutual concepts of the most prominent good practices and the targeted performance indexes to promote the level of scientific research on the local and global levels. He thanked the UQU President for his support and help for the research mobility in the university.

After that Dr. Bakri made a speech in which he stressed on the importance of the research and its role in developing universities and enriching the scientific and knowledge sides. He also underlined the important role of the teaching staff members in choosing the research topics, which contributes to benefiting the society and university, and its role is reflected in promoting the comprehensive national development.

He said: “The development of nations depends on what they offer of scientific researches and studies that serve the humanity, communities and their development,” pointing out that a number of universities rised and achieved advanced global positions as a result for their consideration for the scientific research and developing their tactics.

The UQU President added that the university has benefited a lot from its experience with Wadi Makkah Company, including its consideration for the scientific research and transferring the creative and innovative ideas that are related to this field into patents and others into products that serve the society. He called on everyone to focus on choosing the researches that achieve the objectives of the National Plan 2020 and the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. He also expressed his thanks to the University’s Vice Presidency for Graduate Studies and Scientific Research for its consideration of this matter.

After that, the training sessions that are related to the program were launched.