Qatar Foundation

Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development is a private, non-profit organization that serves the people of Qatar by supporting and operating programs in three core mission areas: education, science and research, and community development. The Foundation strives to nurture the future leaders of Qatar. By example and by sharing its experience, the Foundation also contributes to human development nationally, regionally, and internationally. In all of its activities, the Foundation promotes a culture of excellence in Qatar and furthers its role in supporting an innovative and open society that aspires to develop sustainable human capacity, social, and economic prosperity for a knowledge-based economy. The organization focuses on education, science and research, and community development. It has brought a number of international universities to Qatar to help develop an education sector in which young people can develop the attitudes and skills required for a knowledge economy that is not based on revenues from energy resources. Its main science and research agenda is to build up Qatari innovation and technology capacity through research that results in technologies that can be successfully commercialized for the benefit of the economy. One of Qatar's aims is to become a commercially successful research and development (R&D) hub that attracts the best and brightest. The community development programs aim to help foster a progressive society in Qatar, while also enhancing the cultural landscape, protecting Qatar's heritage, and addressing immediate social needs in the community. The Foundation has played a key role in Qatar's transformation into a political, economic and cultural powerhouse in the region, despite its small size. The Foundation is trying to equip Qataris with the skills, education and qualifications to be competitive in the global economy, challenging perceptions of a population spoiled by its natural gas wealth. Joint venture partnerships in the areas of design, information and communication technologies, telecommunications, policy studies, and event management also contribute to fulfilling the objectives of Qatar Foundation. Qatari firms have begun to make a name for themselves internationally in the computer software industry, on the back of Qatar Foundation's encouragement of research and development. As Qatari firms have begun to invest in R&D as a result of the Foundation's efforts, Pragmatech, a subsidiary of United Development Company (not part of QF), has established a reputation for its text processing, document summarizing and referencing software.