The internationally top-ranked Khalifa University of Science and Technology is the one university in the UAE with the research programs that address the entire range of strategic, scientific and industrial challenges facing the UAE’s knowledge economy transformation and our rapidly evolving world.
Khalifa University is home to the UAE’s leading research centers, many of which are housed in the university’s research institutes. Khalifa University’s three flagship research institutes include the Masdar Institute, the Petroleum Institute, and the Robotics and Intelligent Systems Institute. The Institutes serve as interdisciplinary research units focused on long-term strategic priorities. KU research centers address regional and global challenges in a systematic and targeted manner via engagement of world-class researchers and facilities. These research centers are at the heart of KU’s global leadership in use-inspired research.
Research administration at Khalifa University of Science and Technology is headed by Dr. Steve Griffiths, Senior Vice President for Research and Development.
Contact: Zineb Kherrati, Senior Executive Assistant, Research and Development Division
Email: zineb.kherrati@ku.ac.ae
Dr. Griffiths serves as the university’s chief officer in charge of research strategic planning and operational implementation. The administrative scope of research and development and Khalifa University includes external research partnerships, research grants and contracts, intellectual property research laboratories and research computing. The university’s research institutes and centers are also part of the research and development at Khalifa University.
Addressing national priorities and building on established strenghs
Khalifa University’s research relates to key focus sectors of relevance to the UAE’s strategic economic growth and the technology platforms that serve as foundations for these sectors.
The University’s research priorities are addressed in two categories — “verticals” and “horizontals” — which jointly cover specific industry and sector needs, technical platforms and expertise.
KU’s focus sectors are Clean and Renewable Energy, Hydrocarbon Exploration and Production, Water and Environment, Health, Aerospace, and Supply Chain and Logistics. Research in these sectors is enhanced by our research platforms of Robotics, AI and Data Science, Information and Communication Technologies, and Advanced Materials and Manufacturing.
KU also engages in arts and sciences research that provides additional depth and breadth to the university’s research portfolio. Specific topical areas covered are mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, humanities and social sciences.
The Office of Research Services manages research grants and contracts funded by government, industry, non-profit, NGO and academic sponsors, and supports responsible grant and contract management.
The University Sponsored Research unit manages internally funded faculty led research in line with the KU’s research strategy as part of the University’s mission to be a leading research intensive institution.
The Research Computing Office currently provides access to two high performance computing (HPC) clusters. Simply speaking, an HPC cluster is a set of computers (nodes) that can collaborate to solve computational problems.
Khalifa University’s Research Laboratories Office provides an environment for increased alignment of research infrastructure investment to the University’s strategic research priorities forits centers as well as individual faculty.
The Office of Technology Management & Innovation is responsible for the protection, management and commercialization of the University’s research discoveries.
The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MI) was established in 2007 in Abu Dhabi, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as an independent non-profit graduate level research university focused on advanced e...
Khalifa University’s Robotics and Intelligent Systems Institute was established in July 2019 to bring all the university's research in robotics, artificial intelligence, data science, next-gen networks, semiconductor technologies and cybersecur...
The Petroleum Institute University and Research Center (PI), as it was initially known, was established in 2001 to support the oil and gas industry of Abu Dhabi and the wider UAE. To achieve that goal, it developed and offered undergraduate and g...
