Qatar National Research Fund

Climate change, and more generally Global Change issues have become a major field of environmental research for now more than 20 years. It is also an important component of the Qatar National Research Strategy. Qatar is already strongly committed to develop a more sustainable economy and diversified economy, as clearly stated in the National 2030 Vision.A large part of QNRF initiatives are aligned with those goals, as about 30 to 40% of the awarded projects by QNRF are dealing with sustainability topics. This covers in particular environmental issues, sustainable construction, low carbon energy technologies, renewable energies, risks related to regional climate change, CO2 emissions abatement technologies. QNRF addresses those scientific issues through its main collaborative research program NPRP, but also joined recently the Belmont Forum, a network of 25 funding agencies worldwide to support international calls on Global Change research.Climate change may induces many changes on the environment in the Gulf region in the forthcoming decades. Those changes may induce ecological risks, but also risks for the health population and the infrastructures. How important are these risks? Do they cumulate?If Global climate change scenarios are consistent, there is still a lot of uncertainty about climate change scenarios in the Gulf region, compared to other regions which are well documented such as the Mediterranean region or Northern Europe. Modeling of climate change at regional scale is a key issue to better define decadal trends, prevent extreme events or the impact on marine life.On another hand, R&D priority themes also focus on strengthening the national expertise to support the definition of mitigation strategies at governmental level.