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Countries on the Arabian Peninsula are vying to attract young scientists to their universities. When Diego Cuadros told fellow scientists that he was moving to Qatar, they looked at him in disbelief. What, they asked, did he hope to gain from doing research in a small Arab emirate, fabulously rich in oil and gas but with no noteworthy tradition in science? What if he became totally disconnected from the collaborations, colleague networks and scientific expertise that could facilitate his career success?
Research institutions in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are offering opportunities to foreign researchers. But Cuadros, a Colombian-born epidemiologist who was finishing his PhD at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, knew what he was getting into.
He also knew that his chances of getting funding in the United States after his PhD were slim. Cuadros liked what he saw during his brief stay in Qatar — and, when Abu-Raddad later offered him a postdoctoral position, he packed his bags and returned to the Middle East. Nineteen months on, Cuadros is glad that he made the move. Thanks to generous travel support from Abu-Raddad and the university, he can regularly attend conferences in Asia, Europe and North America.
And he does not feel isolated in Doha. Qatar is not the only aspiring science hub on the Arabian Peninsula. Aware that their oil wells will run dry sooner or later, and that a knowledge economy may be key to future prosperity, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates UAE have launched their own ambitious efforts to become well regarded in international science and higher education. The past decade or so also has seen several futuristic science campuses rising among the sand dunes, complete with new labs, lucrative funding opportunities Qatar spends around 2.
