National Research Grant Regulation

The National Research Grant Regulation is a regulation established by the Research, Development, and Innovation Authority in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2023. It aims to define the rules and controls related to achieving the governance of work and procedures for supporting and managing research grants, including setting a general framework for the regulation governing research, development, and innovation grants, as well as defining the obligations and responsibilities of grant recipients.

The National Research Grant Regulation includes an introduction and nine main chapters. Chapter One contains terminology and definitions related to the regulation and contained therein. Chapter Two explains the general purpose of the regulation, its methodology, the rules governing it and its structure, and a statement of its beneficiaries. Chapter Three discusses research proposals and related submission, integration, and participation in the authority’s initiatives and programs on its electronic platform. Chapter Four includes everything related to contracting and execution, such as the number of participations, members of research teams, consultants, and reports of all kinds. Chapter Five deals with duties and responsibilities, while Chapter Six deals with delays and defaults related to research and grants. Chapter Seven details scientific outputs and intellectual property, as well as related matters such as nominations for awards, ownership of devices, mechanisms for filing intellectual property, and so on. Chapter Eight deals with the budget and expenditure, as well as related rewards, grant allocations, budget items, disbursement powers, and others. Finally, the appendices are included in Chapter Nine of the regulation.

The National Research Grant Regulation was developed in a general form to be implemented on all research, development, and innovation grant programs provided by the authority, regardless of their types, nature, and specialization. The regulations aim to define the rules and controls related to achieving business governance and procedures for supporting and managing research, and are summarized as follows:
1-1 Developing a general framework for the regulations governing research, development and innovation grants funded within the Authority’s programs and grants and its executive regulations.

1-1 وضع إطار عام للائحة المنظمة لمنح البحث والتطوير والابتكار الممولة ضمن برامج ومنح الهيئة ولوائحها التنفيذية.

2-1 Determining the obligations and responsibilities of the recipients of the grant funded within the authority’s programs.

The regulation specifies its beneficiaries as follows: graduate students at universities inside the Kingdom, faculty members and researchers at national universities and research centers, government entities, the private sector, owners of small and medium technical establishments, entrepreneurs, scientific research chairs, and individuals.

The Research, Development, and Innovation Authority is an administratively and financially independent Saudi government authority. It was established by a resolution of the Council of Ministers in 2021. It undertakes powers related to supporting and encouraging the research, development, and innovation sector, coordinating the activities of scientific research centers and institutions, proposing policies, legislation, and regulations, and providing funding related to the sector. The authority is organizationally linked to the prime minister and consists of the chairman of the Board of Directors and a number of members.