PILLAR II: RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

Research and Innovation programs have a significant impact on helping local and global communities drive modern life and create job opportunities in all sectors, especially education and industry. They also ensure a much safer and more prosperous future for humanity. Therefore, Koya University strives to improve the research process not only to produce high-quality services and products but also to solve real-life problems. Producing high-quality research is at the heart of Koya University’s mission. We encourage our faculty members and students to pursue creative and innovative research and scholarships. We develop partnerships with local and international organizations to obtain research grants and other resources to support researchers and their efforts.

Koya University puts great emphasis on collaborative and multidisciplinary research that meets national and international standards. Thus, we plan to establish the High Research Ethics Committee (HREC) to ensure research projects are conducted ethically and safely. In addition, Koya University promotes research excellence and productivity to transform the communities we serve.

Objective 1: Increase Research Funding

STRATEGIES:

1. Obtain more research grants

• Creating a funding opportunities database to help faculty members search for funding opportunities and circulate new funding opportunities.
• Secure grants from both private and public sectors to fund the ongoing research projects.
• Implement policies that create more research funding opportunities.

2. Offer training courses on writing grant proposals

• Train the staff to write effective grant proposals and apply for funds from international organizations.
• Create research groups from influential researchers and faculty members who can obtain funds and grants from regional and global institutions.
• Offer mentoring support to early career researcher staff and include them in the funding proposal with experienced academics.

3. Invest in research infrastructure

• Invest in research infrastructure, library membership, research apps, tools, instruments, etc.
• Assess the existing research facilities such as labs and research centers and renovate them as needed.

Objective 2: Create More Research Opportunities for Faculty and Students

STRATEGIES:

1. Encourage students to conduct more research

• Encourage and require undergraduate and postgraduate students to publish research.
• Adapt policies that facilitate collaborative and joint research between students and faculty members.
• Allocate funds to support students’ creative and innovative ideas and projects.

2. Promote interdisciplinary research

• Create interdisciplinary research and teaching activities to foster innovation and discoveries.
• Promote interdisciplinary curriculum and problem-based learning and teaching.
• Motivate and support faculty members and researchers to create groups from different academic disciplines.
• Create hybrid research teams from different disciplines and academic institutions.

3. Integrate research into the undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum

• Add more research courses in both undergraduate and postgraduate programs.
• Make research an integral part of the curriculum in every academic department.

4- Hold conferences and symposiums

• Hold more national and international conferences to allow faculty members to expand their knowledge and improve their teaching and research competencies.
• Encourage Koya University faculty members to submit and present papers at various national and international conferences.
• Organizing more symposiums for researchers inside and outside Koya University.
• Publish the symposiums’ recommendations to allow stakeholders and the public to easily have access to the content of the symposiums.

Objective 3: Enhance Research Collaboration

STRATEGIES:

1. Invite more scholars and external researchers

• Invite scholars from other academic institutions to participate in Koya University’s collaborative research projects.
• Collaborate with public and private sectors to recruit external researchers and scholars to advance research at Koya University.

2. Strengthen research partnerships with public sectors

• Partner with the public sector especially the KRG institutions to conduct research that has the potential to solve local and national problems.

3. Provide training courses, workshops, and seminars to university researchers

• Provide training courses and supports to enhance research productivity of both junior and senior researchers across the university.  
• Focus on innovation and enterprise training, research funding, research IT training, research integrity and ethics, and data management and protection.
• Suggest training and support for supervisors and examiners on the fundamentals of research supervision and examination.

Objective 4: Manage Research Resources

STRATEGIES:

1. Provide access to digital resources

• Enable staff and students to access international digital libraries and research databases.
• Provide plagiarism checker and referencing tools to all the staff and postgraduate students.

2. Improve the quality of Koya University journals

• Improve the system and the operations of Koya University journals to meet high-quality journal standards.

3. Establish a translation and writing center

• Establish a translation and writing center to help Koya University researchers and writers to publish their works in different regional and international languages.

4. Establish a university research park

• Establish a university research park to facilitate the growth of new businesses and boost the local economy.
• Encourage entrepreneurs to create start-up companies.
• Focus on innovation in various disciplines including information technologies as well as in pure and applied science.