Scientific research in Jordan still ‘very weak’

AMMAN — Secretary General of the Association of Arab Universities (AArU) Sultan Abu Orabi Al Odwan on Friday warned of the “poor level of scientific and applied research in Jordan and the Arab region compared to Western countries”, attributing this “weakness” to the lack of financing and the migration of researchers searching for better opportunities. 

The remarks came during a meeting held by AArU on Friday, which saw the attendance of former ministers and presidents of universities across the Kingdom and the Arab region.

Former general director of the Research Support Fund (RSF) at the Higher Education Ministry Abeer Al Bawab told The Jordan Times: “In most Arab countries, the responsibility for research falls on the shoulders of university professors who perform investigations as a component of their careers — but not as the main part of it.”

“They are educators who do research in order to become better professors, and, while their investigations are of good quality, they are still limited when it comes to improving the overall state of research in Jordan,” Bawab continued, stressing “opportunities for further research are generally low and that is what pushes most academics to migrate. The most evident way to stop this is to increase the research funding by encouraging the private and industrial sectors to cooperate with universities.” 

Odwan called on all concerned parties to “overcome the barriers to keep abreast of the global scientific and technological developments”, pointing to AArU’s role in “networking with the international community to conduct joint research among the association’s member universities and other institutions abroad”. 

Over the past 10 years, RSF spent a total of JD42 million on scientific research, having invested JD20 million on research projects, JD14 million on national projects, JD2 million on scientific conferences and JD2.5 million on scientific journals, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported in March.

In addition, the fund granted over JD4 million on student scholarships, and JD500,000 on research excellence awards.

“These investments were made as a first step aimed at developing Jordan’s research output and the situation did indeed improve, but, if we take a look at the number of researchers in the Kingdom, we realise that it is still very low,” Bawab said, noting that the percentage of the GDP invested in research in other countries is “way higher” than in Jordan.

On the future of the research sector in Jordan, Bawab noted the RSF, which is no longer independent, also does not count with the figure of a general director anymore, expressing concerns over the RSF “becoming a small department in the ministry” and “the way this could affect the funding available for the research sector”.