And what is the main reason for that? It is religion more than anything else..
Let me ask you again, what is in this language that forces people to learn Arabic language? You guys had wealth, you control OPEC, yet you haven't reached the level of even South Koreans.. Now don't bring Pakistan because we are still fighting with our own problems of huge population and almost no natural resources.. you guys were gifted by Allah, a huge wealth.. what have you don't that significant in the recent times?
UAE is hundred times more advanced, and educated than you guys.. at UAE utilized its resources for the betterment of its own nation..
Don't compare yourself with UAE.. there is no comparison..
You are talking as if the Arab world was limited to tiny UAE. You do know that the Arab world is almost the size of Russia and is composed of 20+ countries and that our combined population is soon going to be 3 times larger than your population while being one of the fastest growing?
Problems? Are you joking? You have almost no problems compared to large areas of the Arab world. What are you talking about? When were you at a serious war?
UAE is nowhere near KSA. Is this some joke?
You know what? I can't take ignorants who are barking against Arabs while living and earning their livings thanks to Arabs seriously. I am sorry. I suggest to follow my advice in my previous post.
Not only are you a hypocrite but ignorant too and not very bright.
Saudi Arabia is already the scientific leader of the Arab world, but it is not standing still. Through investment in research and education — and a new focus on maximizing the commercial value of its academic prowess — the country is beating a path to reducing its reliance on oil.
Nature Index |
Published: 27 September 2017
Leader of the pack
Nature volume 549, pages S62–S63 (28 September 2017) |
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This article has been updated
Saudi Arabia leads the way in scientific research in the Arab world, but its position at the top of the pile is reliant on relatively few institutions. By Richard Hodson, infographic by Mohamed Ashour. Data analysis by Aaron Ballagh and Alexander Scherrmann.
Arabian powerhouse
Saudi Arabia is ranked just outside the top 30 nations for high-quality research, 19 places higher than its closest competitor in the Arab world, the
United Arab Emirates (a). It maintained its lead over its Arab neighbours in 2016, though
Qatar jumped 9 places up the global rankings last year, making it the fastest climber at the top of Arabian research. Despite these gains on the global leaderboard, however, the gulf between Saudi Arabia and its Arab neighbours in terms of the country's contribution to high-quality research remains extremely large (b).
Image: Source: Nature Index
Subject strength
Chemistry is Saudi Arabia's forte, and the main driver of its rise up the Nature Index rankings since 2012. But the physical sciences, a distant second for the past two years, narrowed to gap in 2016. Despite AC remaining relatively unchanged, WFC increased in 2016. This shows that Saudi Arabian authors made a greater contribution to the physical science papers they published than in 2015. A similar change was also seen in chemistry and the life sciences last year.
Image: Source: Nature Index
Research spending
Saudi Arabia ranks 44th in the world for gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), based on the latest available data (2013). The United Arab Emirates invests a similar proportion of its GDP in research.
Image: Sources: UNESCO, Web of Science
In the money
A sharp increase in R&D funding in Saudi Arabia in 2010 was matched by an upswing in the quantity of Saudi research. The level of funding is, however, well below the OECD average of 2.4%.
Image: Sources: UNESCO, Web of Science
Investment areas
The natural sciences attract the most funding in Saudi Arabia, and make up the bulk of research publications. The quantity of research produced in engineering and in the health sciences is closer than spending on the two fields might suggest.
Image: Sources: UNESCO, Web of Science (2013)
Who's driving Saudi research?
Image: Source: Nature Index
The big six
Just six institutions account for 95% of Saudi Arabian research, according to WFC (2016).
Image: Source: Nature Index
There's more to research excellence than just quantity of papers. Larger institutions naturally produce more papers than smaller ones. Adjusting for the size advantage (based on an institution's total output of natural science articles in the Web of Science), government body
KACST has the highest number of high-quality articles in Index-tracked journals. However, by WFC — which takes into account an institution's contribution to multi-authored papers —
KAUST is the clear leader.
Image: Source: Nature Index, Web of Science
Image: Source: Nature Index, Web of Science
In 2016, KAUST was the principal source of high-quality research by WFC not just in Saudi Arabia, but the entire Arab world. Its researchers account for nearly half the region's WFC.
https://www.nature.com/articles/549S62a
Nature Index |
Published: 27 September 2017
Drilling for excellence
Nature volume 549, page S61 (28 September 2017) |
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By a considerable margin, Saudi Arabia is the scientific leader of the Arab world. It ranks just outside the world's top 30 nations for its contribution to high-quality research published in journals monitored by the Nature Index, 19 places higher than the closest Arab states — though even that belies the true scale of the lead it holds (see
page S62).
The King Abdullah financial district in Riyadh is a new development in line with the kingdom's plans to change its economic structure.
Image: Ali Al Mubarak/Arabianeye/Getty Images
This has not always been the case. An upsurge in funding for research and development came as recently as 2010, and the quantity of research produced within the country has followed a similarly steep trajectory. But the oil money that has supported this rise over the last decade can no longer be relied upon. The price per barrel has tumbled since 2014, leaving Saudi Arabia with a budget deficit of nearly US$100 billion in 2015.
The Saudi government is looking to its academic sector to supplement the economy and reduce reliance on oil. Universities are being encouraged to exploit commercial value in their research, with specific targets around patenting and start-up companies laid out in the country's science strategy. They do not, however, operate in a vacuum: the culture outside these institutions' walls must also change if the policy is to be successful (
page S75).
Saudi leaders are also taking steps to prepare the human resources required in a scientifically-driven economy. Large numbers of Saudi students choose to study abroad, particularly in the United States. But the expensive, government-funded scholarship programme that enables this is vulnerable to the same falling oil revenues that gave it purpose in the first place. To survive, the scholarship programme must find ways to prove its value to the kingdom (
page S64).
It will be these young people, with ideas and values that may challenge Saudi Arabia's entrenched conservatism, who must spearhead the country's science-powered economic transformation. At present, the country's young graduates are not fulfilling their potential — unemployment amongst this group is high, particularly for female graduates. The Nature Index sought out some of the women who have thrived in their science careers in the kingdom (
page S70). Saudi Arabia is a country challenging itself to change from the top-down and the bottom-up all at once, and its neighbours and the wider international community will be following its future closely.
https://www.nature.com/articles/549S61a
Nature Index |
Published: 27 April 2016
Oiling the wheels on a road to success
Nature volume 532, pages S13–S15 (28 April 2016) |
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With the benefit of a sustainable plan and the funds to back it, Saudi Arabia is aiming high.
Saudi Arabia's scientific development may be in its infancy, but the oil-rich Kingdom is making strides in terms of research investment and publication — with a clear ambition to one day join those in the highest echelons.
KAUST students embark on a new school year with a commencement ceremony. The relatively new university has quickly made an impact on the Nature Index.
Image: KAUST
In 2012, Saudi Arabia had a weighted fractional count (WFC) of 52.84 in the index, sitting behind Turkey, Iran,
Mexico,
Chile and
South Africa. In four years it rose 86.8% to reach a WFC of 98.67, leapfrogging all these countries to compete with Chile and
Argentina globally. Saudi Arabia ranks at number 31 in the world in terms of WFC — up from 39 in 2012.
The country has risen even higher in specific subject areas. In chemistry, for example, it has surpassed countries with a strong scientific impact like Finland and Ireland, with its WFC rising to 66.54, achieving almost a three-fold increase from its position in 2012.
Institutionally, the country's leading science hub King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) made an impressive leap in its WFC between 2012 and 2015, carving a place for itself to compete with American and European research powerhouses.
In just four years, its WFC has risen to become higher than those of prestigious institutions including the
European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN),
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), the
University of Georgia, United States, and
Dresden University of Technology, Germany, to name a few. The output of all of these institutions dwarfed KAUST's in 2012, but KAUST's impressive trajectory since then has seen its WFC shoot to 72 in 2015, overtaking these heavy-hitters.
The country's science development ambitions have been backed by action. Since 2008, the country has embarked on a multi-tiered strategy that will see the Kingdom overhaul its science infrastructure, build high-spec labs, secure grants for research in priority areas in applied science, and link science to industries that drive the economy.
The strategy, broken into four stages to be implemented by 2030, aims to eventually “see Saudi Arabia become a leader in Asia and give it an economic power based on science,” says Abdulaziz Al-Swailem, vice president of scientific research support at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST).
The Saudi Human Genome Project will sequence 100,000 human genomes to conduct biomedical research in the Saudi population.
Image: Fayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty Images
Saudi Arabia's march to the top Saudi Arabia's efforts to boost its scientific research have been paying off, with its output in the Nature Index (WFC) rising steadily over the years. The two graphs below highlight Saudi Arabia's rise compared to other nations, both overall and for chemistry.
Overall output In 2012 Saudi Arabia's overall output in the index was below all the countries shown, but continuous efforts have seen the Kingdom's WFC rise to overtake them all in 2015.
Chemistry More marked than its overall rise, Saudi Arabia has made great strides in chemistry. After accelerated growth, which saw the Kingdom's chemistry WFC triple since 2012, it has outshone many larger players in the field in 2015.
The Kingdom's science investments focus on applied research that feeds directly into the country's industrial interests, particularly the oil and energy sector. But even in its strong subjects, chemistry and the physical sciences, Saudi Arabia's WFC remains modest compared to big players in Asia like
China,
Japan and South Korea.
“Saudi Arabia could look to some successful emerging economies for inspiration.”
To truly swim comfortably with these bigger fish, Saudi Arabia may benefit from looking at successful emerging economies in Asia.
One inspiration could be
India. In addition to multi-disciplinary scientific and technical advancements that have improved its output in the index from 736.5 to 901.4 in the past four years, the subcontinental giant has joined the exclusive club of countries that have launched successful space missions.
Like Saudi Arabia, India's leading research institutes focus on chemistry, and their total output currently outstrips their Saudi Arabian counterparts by almost a factor of seven (the latter surpassing 472 in 2015, while the former is 66.5).
India's prowess in chemistry is something that Saudi Arabia can aspire to, considering that working conditions for researchers in the Kingdom are more conducive.
India's science ecosystem is far from perfect. Research funding cannot keep up with inflation and a general slowdown in the country's economy. In addition, commentators from the research community say the funding processes are lengthy, bureaucratic, and provide little feedback when applications for grants are turned down. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's healthy stream of oil revenue provides assured funding for the country's state-of-the-art research facilities.
While India has slightly increased spending and dedicated US$1.19 billion for the next fiscal year (2016–2017) for science, it has around 700 universities and 200,000 full-time researchers drawing on the same funding pot. By contrast, Saudi Arabia has pledged an education and training budget of US$50.9 billion for next year, which includes higher education and scientific research. With a total population of just 30 million, it has a much lower number of full-time researchers competing for the available resources.
Another impressive trajectory that Saudi Arabia might look to emulate is that of Singapore, which has a smaller population as well and has managed to climb high in the index. Like the Kingdom,
Singapore also has a focus on chemistry research, and it has put together a similar top-down national science strategy for research institutes across the country. Both countries have strong collaborations with top universities around the world and are welcoming of foreign researchers in their efforts to drive innovation.
Mansour Alghamdi, director of the general directorate of scientific awareness and publishing at KACST, is optimistic that Saudi Arabia can bridge the large gap that currently exists in the volume of scientific output between it and such countries as India and Singapore.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a clear plan to do so and it has the resources,” he says.
Future growth
An internationally rising star This graph shows KAUST's rise compared to a selection of other institutions*. *Institutions shown are those that were furthest above KAUST in 2012, have experienced overall growth in WFC by 2015 and have been overtaken by KAUST in 2015. For clarity, only 2012 and 2015 data points are shown.
In 2012, Saudi's ranking in research output, with a WFC of 52.8, meant it was comparable with countries like South Africa, Turkey and Iran, all hovering around the 60–70 mark. Its WFC stood way below countries like Mexico, Hungary, Chile, Greece and Argentina.
Saudi Arabian researchers benefit from cutting-edge labs and generous funding that has boosted the country's R&D.
Image: Top: KACST; Bottom: KAUST
Four years later, the country's research outlook is very different and it is surpassing countries like Argentina, Mexico and
Hungary in the index, and levelling the playing field with Chile. Chemistry research led the country's rapid rise to surpass these countries, but its life sciences and physical sciences WFCs of 8.5 and 31.5 still lag behind.
However, the Kingdom's AC has been steadily growing in these two fields over the past four years, hinting at the ever-increasing significance of international collaborations. It seems that Saudi Arabian researchers are casting their nets ever wider and are participating in publishing more articles, to the detriment of the WFC accredited for these articles.
Though international collaboration has proved fruitful, Saudi Arabia must keep a focus on nurturing home-grown talent, says Nasser Al-Aqeeli, dean of research at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), based in Dhahran's 'techno valley' in the eastern region of the Kingdom. In the next five years, he says, the country will focus on a programme for national capacity building.
A good first step was the Saudi government's decision to create a large scholarship programme in 2005, arguably the largest in the world, which has seen more than 200,000 young Saudi Arabians studying abroad. This makes Saudi Arabian students in the United States the fourth largest bloc of expatriate students, following those of China, India and South Korea. The government hopes these students will come back and drive a scientific culture in the country.
“Its rise up the ranks depends on a 'self-correcting mechanism' of a slow start to sustainable growth.”
Saudi Arabia is also looking to increase its applied research focus, which is an integral part of the current phase of its national science strategy, while securing good funding for basic research as well. Al-Aqeeli says that Saudi's journey involves what he termed a “self-correcting mechanism” where the country is having a slow start in high-impact research, but a more sustainable one. An eventual future move towards basic research might help Saudi Arabia's research capacity to mature.
https://www.nature.com/articles/532S13a
And just last month we reached top 29. Meaning we are among the 15% best performing nations out of almost 200. Great stuff and we are just at the early beginning relatively speaking.
