Qatar Research, Development and Innovation Council
Funds Qatari research, development, and innovation partnerships connecting national priorities with commercial opportunities.
Qatar Research, Development and Innovation Council is Qatar's national research, development, and innovation body. It was established by Emiri Decree in 2018 to steer a national strategy built around resilience and prosperity, and it became the main home for Qatar Foundation's former QNRF grant portfolio after the 2023 to 2024 consolidation.
The council funds academic research, innovation, and collaboration through awards such as Research Outcome Award, Innovation Coupons, Academic Research Grant, National Research Program, Research Talent Program, Artificial Intelligence for Qatar, Future Communications Call, Food Security Call, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, Qatar-Spain Innovation Program, Multiversity Grants, and Institutional Collaboration Grant. Its current calls include awards such as 1 million QAR for AIQAT, 500,000 QAR for Innovation Coupons, 5 million QAR for the Research Outcome Award, and current academic grants at 70,000 QAR and 438,000 QAR.
Applicants move through the Innolight and QGrants portals, and the strongest fits are universities, public bodies, and research teams working on national priorities such as artificial intelligence, communications, food security, health, energy, quantum, hardware, and the built environment. QRDI sits closer to a national research council than a general innovation agency, with a mix of competitive research funding and targeted challenge calls.