The Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR) at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) was originally established as part of the Deanship of Graduate Studies in the year 2000, and then became an independent Deanship in September, 2005. The DSR is responsible for the planning, management, promotion and support of research activities that are carried out by the academic departments through internal and external funding. The Deanship is managed by the Dean of Scientific Research. The functional responsibilities of DSR include research activities such as funded research projects, professional conference attendance, sabbatical leaves, release time, research scholarship programs and research awards. In addition, the Deanship manages a central workshop that serves research needs of KFUPM faculty. The Deanship plans and manages research and other scholarly activities through the Scientific Research Council, the Research Committee, the Arabic Research Committee and the Conference Committee. The Scientific Research Council is a regulatory body chaired by the Dean of Scientific Research and the members are selected from various academic departments. The Research Committee is an executive body composed of 11 members that represent the different University Colleges and the Research Institute. The Arabic research committee concentrates on the review and support of Arabic book authoring and translation in addition to Arabic research projects and studies. The Conference Committee is dedicated to the evaluation of applications submitted by faculty to attend regional and international scientific and professional conferences and meetings. All committees are chaired by the Dean of Scientific Research with members selected/elected from the different academic departments of the University.
The Research Institute is the cornerstone of applied research activities at KFUPM. It has created a strong research base and is recognized for solving critical scientific and technical problems as well as working on turning knowledge into practice. Working in collaboration with the faculty from academic departments, our full-time researchers annually produce hundreds of research reports for industrial and government sponsors. Our research activities are guided by the needs of the Kingdom, with concentration on engineering research, environment and water, petroleum and minerals, refining and petrochemicals, communications and computers, and economics and management systems. We are expanding our capabilities in some fields through the support of the Ministry of Higher Education by establishing the Centers of Research Excellence (CoRE) program, which initially will include concentrations in renewable energy, refining and petrochemicals and nanotechnologies. More centers will be added in the future.
