/Institutions/University-of-Dubai/json/2024-2025/Policy-and-Procedure-Manual-local.json

/Institutions/University-of-Dubai/json/2024-2025/Policy-and-Procedure-Manual.json

Policy and Procedure Manual 2024-25 > Research > Research Support Policy

Research Support Policy

Policy

The RC chaired by the Director of Research  is responsible for identifying research priorities, proposing and updating the research plans on a regular basis, evaluating/following up on research projects submitted/approved for funding, constructing and updating the database for faculty intellectual activities, enhancing resources to support faculty research, and proposing ways for disseminating research conducted by faculty to external stakeholders. The research priorities and output at UD are guided by a combination of relevant accreditation standards, such as those provided by CAA, AACSB and ABET. 

Each Colleges Research Committee implements the guidelines of the RC. College committees propose programs for promoting and developing the research activities of faculty members in their respective College.

 

1. Classification of Publication Venues 

1.1 Journal Classification Standards

UD accepts articles in journals indexed by Scopus. For DBS,  if a journal is indexed by Scopus, appears in the ABDC Journal List or the ABS Academic Guide, that journal will be considered acceptable.

  Journals are classified into 4 categories, as follows: 

1. Category I, which includes all journals that are Scopus ranked as Q1  and *ABDC A or higher or ABS 3 or higher          

2. Category II, which includes all journals that are Scopus ranked as Q2 and ABDC B or ABS 2

3.  Category III, which includes all journals that are Scopus ranked as Q3 and *ABDC C or ABS 1

4. Category IV, which includes all journals that are Scopus ranked as Q4.

*Applicable to DBS & CoL faculty only 

Ranking and classification shall be judged based on the information available at the time of publication of the article.

Faculty members must differentiate between the research output required for FDP purposes and that required for promotion purposes. For FDP purposes, the following requirements apply for research frequency, research award and teaching release time in the calendar year;

The below table is applicable starting January 2025

If the papers are co-authored by more than one UD faculty member, all the eligible UD internal authors will have the award divided equally amongst them. Each paper can only be claimed once, the principal author will carry the responsibility of allocating the award.

The determination of the amount of the financial research award and the allocation of course release time will be made by the university management. This decision will be based on various factors, including the number of eligible faculty members and the available resources within the university budget. The university management reserves the right to adjust the awards and course release time based on these considerations.

 

1.2 Other Intellectual Contributions

A faculty member may author research monographs, scholarly books or a chapter in a book, and/or articles in refereed proceedings or other recognized intellectual contributions (e.g. patents etc). Such venues shall be considered intellectual contributions only for the purposes of faculty performance evaluation.  

 

 

2. Documenting Intellectual Contribution

2.1 Documentation Process

The College’s Research Committee follows the below process to ensure that publications are documented:

1. An inventory of each faculty member’s intellectual contributions each academic year starting with the year after the PhD degree was earned. Intellectual contributions in process are not included. The inventory is not based on what is submitted on a CV, but on evidence provided by the scopus. 

2. A list of actual accomplishments of research by type and classification for the year in the Annual Performance Evaluation form and evidence of such accomplishment identified by research type and class. Such evidence is used as a basis to develop and update the intellectual contribution database. 

3. A research productivity summary report by faculty member, type, and class are generated from the Scopus. For accreditation purposes, a list of each member’s intellectual contributions for the last five years is prepared to ensure timeliness, currency and continuity of these contributions.

2.2 Database for Intellectual Contributions
Each faculty member must ensure that the database for his/her intellectual contributions on Faculty Success database has current information. 

2.3 Research Visibility
In order to make faculty intellectual contributions visible and available for the public and to disseminate research findings and results, the university encourages the faculty members to do the following:

1. Publish in refereed international journals and refereed international proceedings.

2. Present at local, regional and international academic and professional conferences.

3. Present to business, government and civil organizations.

4. Conduct seminars and workshops to students and faculty members.

5. Publish technical report series.

6. Publish their intellectual contributions in relevant online databases (e.g. Faculty Success (formerly known as Digital Measures), Research Gate, Google Scholar, etc.).

To promote faculty members’ publications, the faculty member shall regularly send his/her work to the college’s research committee, which may list it in research catalogs or UD research webpage.

3. Research Support
A faculty member is supported through the following venues: 

 

3.1 Research Budget: 

A faculty member is entitled to a maximum amount up to AED 30,000 per year to support his/her research activities such as attending approved international or regional conferences, payment of journal processing fees or other related expenses. These are subject to the approval of the Dean and the VPAA. 

 

3.2 Conference Attendance Support

UD supports faculty members to present original research in regional or international conferences. A faculty member can physically attend up to four (4) conferences in a given academic year. However, UD shall financially support up to two (2) conferences per year subject to a set of prevailing conditions. (Please see UD’s Conference Attendance Policy R4.4)

 

In addition, a faculty member can also attend virtual/online conferences, with registration fees paid by UD, if the faculty’s internally-allocated research budget has not been exceeded.

 

3.3 External Research Funding

Research project grants awarded to UD have great importance in linking the industry with the academic research, and are crucial to the university and the colleges’ sustainability and continuous development.  

 

Faculty members may seek new external research funding from recognized organizations. Applications for external research funding must be pre-approved by the RC and the VPAA.UD shares revenues from awarded research grants and consultancies with the faculty members receiving the awards, as follows: 

1. 40% of the awarded grant overhead shall be allocated to the university, which can be used to recover some of the costs incurred in performing the research and to expand UD’s infrastructure for research and consultancy. 

2. 40% of the awarded grant overhead shall be allocated to the related faculty member(s) as a compensation for their contribution in the expected work.

3. 20% of the awarded grant overhead shall be allocated to the college to cover various developmental and operational expenses as decided by the Dean. This may include the invitation of international/local professors to help in these projects, the purchase of lab equipment/furniture, provision of needed training and the support of other research initiatives, etc..

 

4. Software Support

The university provides modern hardware technologies, software packages and subscription to online databases needed for research or teaching. It also provides financial support for acquiring information from reputable databases, when needed (e.g. Bank Scope, IFS, IMF, EIU, MEED, etc.). Faculty members may apply via the College RC to acquire particular software for research purposes, when needed. Normally the requests must be submitted three months before the beginning of the following semester.

 

5. College’s Research Publication Support Budget: 

Each college dean shall allocate a budget to support faculty members and students in research publications. 

 

6. Research/Teaching Assistants

A faculty member may request aid from Research or Teaching Assistants (Refer to FP 5.12). 

 

7. Research Rewards

UD has established an annual award for the Best Research activities.

8. Short Sabbatical Research Visits
UD allows faculty members to visit top 200 international universities  outside the UAE during the summer period to pursue research. Such visits foster the professional development of UD faculty members. For more details refer to R4.6, Short Research Visit Policy.

 

9. Teaching-Release Time

A faculty member may request a teaching release time (buyout) for up to 3 credit hours per semester/term from externally funded projects/grants to carry out a specific research project or other approved activities at the pro-rated salary reduction value). Such a request must be applied at least two months before the start of the following semester and needs the approval of the VPAA based on the recommendation of the Dean. 

 

10. Internal Support for Research Groups

The University provides appropriate internal research grants for research projects conducted by full-time faculty members employed by UD. The RC announces, through internal communication means, the availability of internal research funds and the eligibility requirements. Faculty are expected to adhere to the requirements and submit their proposals within the dates specified by the committee. The RC reviews the submitted proposals and sends proposals that meet the requirements to external reviewers. The RC will share the review results with the President and VPAA to make the final decision and select the top winning projects based on the available internal funds.  Refer to policy R 4.8 Internal Research Fund for additional information. 

 

11. Research Sustainability
The following proactive steps are used by the colleges to promote research, improve faculty research skills and research portfolio, and ensure continuity of intellectual contributions and high quality of faculty's research:

1. Exploring opportunities for faculty to interact with the business community by developing partnerships with institutions and enterprises from the private and the public sectors. This partnership will help UD identify the needs of the society. The university, in collaboration with its partners, will be able to provide consulting and training, as well as conduct joint research projects/workshops/seminars/symposia/conferences. 

2. Coordinating the various intellectual and research activities of the faculty members in order to avoid the scattering of efforts.

3. Encouraging the dialogue and the productive exchange of ideas between its faculty and top officials representing public and private entities.

4. Inviting distinguished research scholars to participate in the ongoing research programs and establishing permanent and profitable relations with reputable international research centers. These relations ensure a continuous transfer of knowledge and skills.

5. Encouraging local, regional and international visibility of faculty research contributions. This can be achieved through the publication of working paper series/white papers .

6. Encouraging intellectual contributions shared with students, faculty and peers. This can be attained by engaging students in research conducted by faculty and encouraging more faculty participation in seminars and workshops conducted by the colleges.

7. Negotiating joint agreements with other research centers in the UAE and/or outside the UAE to participate in funded collaborative research.

8. Organizing workshops once every semester on improving research skills and capability and on recent developments in scientific research and research matters. 

 

12. Research Support for Students
UD may  fund students’ research subject to the availability of funding (internal or external). Such requests must be led by a faculty member as part of a research group.

Students (graduate and undergraduate) are eligible for a financial award of 2,000AED, if they publish a conference or a journal paper listed in Scopus. If more than one student author they can divide it.