Saturday 27 / July / 2024
Muscat: A food security project proposed by Sohar University in collaboration with Sheffield University has won a £300,000 British government grant.
It’s one of eight projects to be funded under a £3.4 million British grant as part of a Gulf strategy initiative, and the project will focus on agriculture using minimum to no water.
"Only eight projects were selected from 173 applications received through this programme. This is part of the British government's Gulf Science Innovation Strategy, which aims to upscale UK engagement with the GCC countries.
“We expect to see more collaboration between researchers from Oman and the UK through this," Paul Hilder, director at British Council in Oman, said in an interview with Times of Oman.
The British Council would act as a facilitator to encourage research activity between the two countries.
"A lot of research is being carried out between individuals of the two countries but through this initiative we would see a more systematic and institutional approach to collaborative research. At the British Council, our main area of work is education and science is a key thing we do across the world. We encourage it through our wide range of contacts in the two countries," he added.
The Gulf, Science, Innovation and Knowledge Economy Programme is a £9 million project led by the UK government’s Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in partnership with the British Council in all six Gulf countries.
The two day symposium is a part of the programme and serves as a networking platform for policy makers, innovation scientists and innovators academics, innovation centres, research institutions and start-up companies from the Gulf countries.
