Strategic Technologies: Advanced Materials

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Environment Water Information Technology ECP Nanotechnology
Petrochemicals
Math and Physics Advanced Materials
Biotechnology
Energy
Space and Aeronautics Oil and Gas
Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program
King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Economy and Planning
http://www.mep.gov.sa
Ministry of Economy and Planning
Contents
Contents
Executive Summary Introduction Background Program Scope Alignment with National Science & Technology Policy Strategic Context Advanced Materials R&D Needs of the Kingdom Stakeholders Roles Kingdoms Industry Status Materials Research at Selected KSA Research Organizations Review of International Advanced Materials Research Institutes Advanced Materials R&D Indicators SWOT Analysis Higher Strategy Vision Mission Values and Program Culture Program Strategic Goals Technology Areas Selection Process Selected Technology Areas Program Structure Program Implementation Portfolio Management Program Management APPENDICES Appendix A -- Plan Development Process and Participants Appendix B -- Supporting Analyses and References 4 8 8 9 9 10 10 1 1 14 15 18 9 4 4 4 6 40 40 40 4 4 47
Executive summary
The National Policy for Science and Technology, approved by the Council of Ministers in 1423 H (2002 G), defined 11 programs for localization and development of strategic technologies that are essential for the Kingdoms future development. This document is the strategic priorities for one of these programs, the Advanced Materials Program.
Advanced materials are critical for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). There is a potential for the Kingdom to capture greater value-added from petroleum through the development of petrochemical-based materials, including polymers and composites. Further potential comes from natural mineral resources if coupled with advanced technologies to produce new advanced materials. There is a great need for improved materials for use in water desalination and in the petroleum and petrochemical industries. There are also needs for specialized medical materials, aerospace and defense materials, and new construction materials. This plan is based on input from the users and stakeholders for advanced materials in the Kingdom, including government agencies, industry, universities, and medical centers that use advanced materials or conduct advanced materials R&D.
Executive summary
The planning process: Identified the main stakeholders in the Kingdom for advanced materials. Identified the key needs of the Kingdom in advanced materials. Assessed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the program, including an analysis of KSA publications and patents in advanced materials and an assessment of international research institutes. Defined a mission and vision for the Kingdoms advanced materials program. Defined the key technologies and other program areas needed to address the Kingdoms needs in advanced materials. Seven key technology fields emerged from this process: Membranes. Composite and Hybrid Materials. Polymers and polymer processing technologies. Metals and alloys. Ceramics. Smart Materials. Coating.
Executive summary
Examples of specific technologies to be pursued in these fields are shown in table ES1 below. Table ES 1: Key Advanced Materials Technologies for Saudi Arabia Field Technology Advanced function membranes: biofouling resistant, chlorine tolerant, chemical and scale resistant, high reverse osmosis rejection and permeability membranes, gas separation and sterilization membranes. Development platforms: nano-, micro-, and ultra- filtration membranes, electrolytic membranes. Advanced functions: composites for desalination and construction processes; high pressure and temperature applications; fiber reinforced resins and polymers; ceramic and radiation shielding composites; lightweight and nanocomposites Industrial applications: pipeline and storage tanks, electronics, textiles, environment, agriculture and water, oil and gas drilling, dentistry, drug delivery. Development platforms: resin systems and high temperature ablative resins, nanostructure, water soluble and biodegradable polymers, flame retardants, UV light stabilizers and nanoparticles for polymer reinforcement. Advanced functions: duplex and ferritic steels for thermal plants, materials for desalination plants, high temperature stress corrosion cracking, medical applications, defense and aerospace applications, equipment for oil/gas services. Specialized alloys: corrosion and erosion resistant, high temperature and strength. Advanced functions: insulation, medical implants, building materials, industrial furnaces. Specialized ceramics: alum oxide, tungsten carbides, refractory oxide dispersion strengthened alloys. Advanced functions: Photo-, thermo-, piezo-, tribo- and electro-chromic materials; smart glass, textiles and packaging; organic and inorganic LEDs and photovoltaic materials; self-cleaning and multifunctional materials and switchable systems Advanced functions: corrosion resistant, UV light protection; self-cleaning and self-healing; light, heat and pressure switchable coatings; metallic, thermal barrier coating and electroplating.
Membranes
Composite and hybrid materials
Polymers and polymer processing
Metals and alloys
Ceramics
Smart materials
Coating
Executive summary
The Advanced Materials Program will work to enhance the position of the Kingdom in these technologies and to apply the technologies to meet the needs of the Kingdom. The Advanced Materials Program will be directed by a Program Manager, who will be responsible for the overall execution of the plan. The main selection criteria for the projects in the program are: Potential impact of the project on the Kingdoms needs for advanced materials. Potential contribution of the project to new knowledge. Technical and managerial capabilities of the performer. Portfolio balance among program goals, technology tracks, stakeholder needs, and research performers. The key performance indicators are: Number and impact of successful applications of advanced materials to stakeholder needs. Expansion of number of research-active material scientists in Kingdom. Number of papers published in journals listed in ISI and their impact. Number of generated patents. Number of products successfully entering the market. Number of successfully incubated new companies. Number of researchers trained and applications developed in Technology Innovation Centers. The Advanced Materials Advisory Committee, with stakeholder membership, will oversee the implementation of the plan. It will review performance metrics and provide advice on the portfolio of projects. The Committee will provide advice to the Program Manager, and will also report to the National S&T Plan Supervisory Committee, which will oversee all of the National S&T Programs.
Introduction
Background
The National Policy for Science and Technology, approved by the Council of Ministers in 1423 H (2002 G), defined 11 programs for the localization and development of strategic technologies that are essential for the Kingdoms future development. The King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) was given responsibility for developing 5-year strategic and implementation plans for each of these 11 technology programs. This document is the plan for one of these programs, the Advanced Materials Program. Advanced materials are widely recognized by many nations to be a critical technology. For example, the U.S. National Science and Technology that Council recognized were advanced materials products, and Japan includes nanotechnology/materials as one of its four priority areas for investment.
the foundation of manufactured
Advanced materials are critical for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). There is a potential for the Kingdom to capture greater value-added from petroleum through the development of petrochemical-based materials, including polymers and composites. There is a great need for improved membranes and separations technologies for use in water desalination and in the petroleum and petrochemical industries. Advanced materials are also needed to withstand the various environmental conditions present in the Kingdom. Corrosion resistant materials are needed for the petroleum and water sectors, and temperature and abrasion resistant materials are needed for many applications. There are also needs for specialized medical materials, aerospace and defense materials, and construction materials. This plan defines a vision for advanced materials research and technology development for the Kingdom; identifies key needs; assesses strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats; and defines a set of programs to meet these needs. It presents a plan for advanced materials based on input from the users and stakeholders for advanced materials in the Kingdom. These include companies, government agencies, and medical centers that use advanced materials, as well as the universities and other research organizations that conduct advanced materials R&D. The plan received input from stakeholders at a one-day stakeholder workshop on June 17, 2007, and received extensive input, review, and comment from a stakeholder advisory committee that met repeatedly in the following months.
Introduction
Program Scope
The scope of this plan is advanced materials science and technology programs for Saudi Arabia. The scope of the program includes the Kingdoms government, university, and industry research and technology development efforts in advanced materials. This plan targets the first 5-year phase of the 20-year National Policy for Science and Technology. The term advanced materials is used to emphasize that the focus is on higher value-added materials, rather than commodity materials. There is no clear division between advanced materials and ordinary materials based on the type of material. While some kinds of materials, such as photonic materials, are generally considered advanced materials, many other kinds of materials, such as metals and ceramics may or may not be advanced materials, depending on their level of technology. For the purpose of this program, materials that are the subject of significant research and technology development efforts are considered advanced materials. system development as well as coordination and integration of its components and beneficiaries. 2. Developing qualified human resources in science and technology fields. 3. Fostering and supporting scientific research to serve national security and sustainable development. 4. Supporting and developing the technical capabilities of various national sectors to enable technology localization and development, and production of high added value, internationally competitive products. 5. Continuously developing and coordinating the official regulations related to science and technology. 6. Promoting effective international cooperation in science and technology. 7. Enhancing science and technology support activities, such as information and standardization services, patents, consulting and engineering firms, and scientific societies. 8. Developing and investing in a knowledge-based economy and community and their required information technologies. 9. Exploiting science and technology for the preservation of natural resources and the environment. 10.Creating social awareness of the importance of science and technology in realizing national security and sustainable development. The National Policy for Science and Technology further defined ten Strategic Underpinnings that are compatible with the above-mentioned goals and objectives. The national policy goals and objectives, as well as the key needs of the Kingdom outlined in Subsection 2.1, form the starting point and foundation for developing It also defined General Objectives that can be summarized as follows: 1. Adopting a comprehensive view of the national science, technology, and innovation system that supports the programs strategy, goals, and projects, as will be outlined in this plan.
Alignment with National Science & Technology Policy

The National Policy for Science and Technology defined four main goals for S&T programs: 1. Preserving national security. 2. Serving sustained, balanced, and comprehensive development. 3. Promoting the citizens standard of living and quality of life. 4. Contributing to human civilization.
Strategic Context
Advanced Materials R&D Needs of the Kingdom
The Advanced Materials Program planning process put a strong emphasis on identifying the most critical advanced materials research and innovation needs for the Kingdom. Emphasis was placed on areas where there are special needs in the Kingdom due to the Kingdoms unique environment, culture, and existing industries, or where there are opportunities for KSA industry to have a competitive advantage. The following strategic areas were identified as priorities for advanced materials applications.
Water Water is a critical need in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has the worlds largest sea water desalination industry. There are many needs for advanced materials in water desalination, water treatment, water resources and conservation. The Kingdom has competencies in water technologies, such as in the Saline Water Conversion Corporation, which has a research institute, holds patents, and operates pilot plants and test facilities. The Kingdom needs to build on these capabilities to develop successful technology-based businesses. Key advanced materials needs for water include: Membranes: These include reverse osmosis, nano filtration, ultra filtration, and micro filtration. These membranes are currently used but not produced in the Kingdom. Anti-scaling materials: Various anti-scaling materials are currently used in thermal processes. Product performance is temperature-delimited and breakthroughs are needed. Corrosion-resistant materials: Materials are required for preventing corrosion, especially in high-temperature environments. Advanced materials are also required to strengthen corrosion-resistant pipelines. Additives: Additives are used to reduce pollution. New additives with better performance are required. Water source identification: Advanced materials can play a critical role in developing tracers.
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Oil & Gas The Kingdom is the worlds leading producer of petroleum. A wide variety of advanced materials are needed in petroleum production. Key needs include: Corrosion: Materials are needed that can survive the sour (high sulfur content) service. Sulfur utilization: The KSA oil and gas industry needs better materials for use in converting or using sulfur. Composites: Composites are needed for construction, oil pipelines, optical fibers, and water services (such as pipelines, storage, processing, and disposal). Major technical challenges relate to joining, manufacturing, and installation. There are also issues with training and standards that limit applications. Non-destructive testing (NDT): NDT methods applied to composites and advanced materials are a key focus area. Welding Technologies: Although welding is viewed as a mature technology, there are many materials-related problems that need to be addressed. Oil Recovery: There is a strong need for polymers and other additives to enhance oil recovery. Drilling processes: Advanced materials are needed for non-vertical drilling. Coatings: Coating materials are required to reduce corrosion failures, especially those related to hightemperatures. Materials are needed to reduce wear in gas turbines. Anti-scaling materials: Anti-scaling materials are of great demand in the petroleum sector. Petrochemicals The Kingdom has a major petrochemicals industry. Many of this industrys materials needs are similar to those in the oil and gas industry but there are additional needs for: Advanced polymers: Some key areas include additives such as flow enhancers, fillers, ultraviolet stabilizing polymers, and fire-resisting polymers. Mining and Metals Saudi Arabia is a significant producer of minerals and metals. Some key needs are for: Mining and production processes. New technologies and processes for characterization of alloys. KSA-specific development of alloys for lamination and high-temperature conditions. Powder technologies. Health, Biomedicine, and Pharmaceuticals The Kingdom has an active health research and services sector and includes some generic pharmaceutical manufacturers. There are a number of advanced materials needs in this sector: Radioactive materials are needed for a wide variety of diagnostics, therapeutics, and sterilization purposes. There are also special packaging needs for radioactive materials. Genetic materials, including biomolecules with specific genetic compositions for diagnostics. Medical implants and prosthetics, which require specialized materials and coating and machining technologies. Tissue engineering, requiring polymeric biodegradable and non-biodegradable materials. Selective drug delivery, requiring new bioactive molecules. Membranes for dialysis. Specialized materials for biofacilities. Polymer processing technologies: such as those used to produce molds, coatings, and paints. Catalysts: including catalyst materials, regeneration, and catalyst support. Materials for environmental protection: including biodegradable materials.
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Strategic Context
Agriculture and Food The KSA agriculture and food industry has some specialized material needs, including: Polymer-coated fertilizers for longer life. Degradable pesticides. Materials for food packaging. Additives to prevent ultraviolet rays from penetrating food or beverages. Defense There are a variety of defense needs for advanced materials, including sulfur resistant materials and titanium based materials for aircraft, radar materials, light weight fiber reinforced (FR) composites for vehicles and gap crossings (e.g., bridges), radiation shielding, and erosion resistant materials. Other needs There are a number of other advanced material needs for the KSA construction, power, and electronics industries, including: Smart glass and smart windows for the construction industry. Silicon based materials including (poly/mono crystalline silicon), silicon wafers, semiconductor processing materials, silicon nano-particles, and silicon oxide nano-particles, for applications in electronics and other industries, Silane; Silicones. Heat transfer materials, to both aid and reduce heat flow, with applications in many industries. Photovoltaic and thermal technologies and materials for the solar industry, including thin films, solar cell, and coatings such as electro-catalytic coatings. Coating materials, including pre-coating surface preparation, inorganic (metal deposition, nano crystalline materials etc.), and organic (especially high temperature offshore coating or fast-cure coating), and coatings materials used in electro/ thermal/ photo chromic applications. Advanced ceramics for several industries. Composite materials, carbon-fiber composites and fiber glass composites for civil and infrastructural needs. These are all areas where the Advanced Materials Program can provide benefits to the Kingdom through development, transfer and adaptation of advanced materials.
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Strategic Context
Stakeholders Roles
The major program stakeholders include KACST, other government agencies, KSA universities, and industry. Their roles are as shown in table 1. Table 1: Advanced Materials Stakeholders Roles Stakeholders Roles Coordinate and manage Kingdom wide advanced material initiatives Manage and participate in national and international projects KACST Provide materials research user facilities Provide consultation and advice to government on issues related to advanced materials and relevant technology transfer Create new basic and applied scientific knowledge Universities Train students in material science, engineering and relevant technical fields Participate in national and international collaborative projects Independent or Specialized Government Research Centers Government Agencies Create new applied scientific knowledge and operational prototypes Provide oversight of operations and implementation of relevant projects Develop and commercialize products and processes resulting from the program Private Sector Participate in national and international collaborative projects Participate in Technology Innovation Centers
Kingdoms Industry Status

The status of the Kingdoms industry related to advanced materials affects the Kingdoms strategy to succeed in the technologies. The Kingdom has several industries that are either users of advanced materials, producers of materials, or performers of materials R&D. The major industrial entities are: Saudi Aramco and its suppliers are significant users of advanced materials, and Aramcos R&D center has materials scientists working on problems of interest to the industry.
The Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) has an R&D center that conducts research on corrosion, scaling, and other materials problems. Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) is a major producer of basic materials, especially petrochemicals but also minerals. It recently acquired GE Plastics, and so is a major producer of plastics, although not in Saudi Arabia. SABIC conducts a significant amount of R&D, but predominately outside of the Kingdom. The King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, although not typically thought of as industry,
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Strategic Context
conducts research and produces specialized medical materials, such as radioactive materials. Other industries that could potentially play a significant role in advanced materials in the Kingdom are aerospace/ defense, electronics, solar energy, and construction. At present, these are either relatively small, not involved in the materials sector of their industry, or, as in the case of construction, are not significantly involved in technology development. While the Kingdom is not a major producer of advanced materials, there is a strong domestic demand for advanced materials in several industries, very strong production of basic materials, and some industrial R&D capacity Table 2: Materials Research at Selected KSA Research Organizations Organization Materials field 1. High temperature thermal barrier coatings 2. Atmospheric corrosion of Al alloys 3. Materials related problems in local industry 4. Corrosion inhibition of construction materials 5. Sea water corrosion of Al alloys King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals 6. Development of corrosion and wear resistant coatings 7. Development of catalyst materials 8. Polymeric materials 9. Development of carbon nanotubes 10. Development of nanocomposite coatings 11. Concrete corrosion 10 PhDs 20 MSc. Staff size To better understand the current research capabilities of KSA research institutions in materials, the Advanced Materials Advisory Committee collected information from several universities and KACST regarding their areas of technical focus and number of researchers. These are shown in table 2. in advanced materials. These characteristics create the potential for establishing a successful domestic advanced materials industry.
Materials Research at Selected KSA Research Organizations
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Strategic Context
Organization Materials field 1. Smart functional materials 2. Polymer science and technology 3. Coating science and technology King Abdulaziz University 4. Semiconductor materials and devices 5. Catalysis 6. Multi-scale computation, simulation and design of materials 7. Applications of lasers in advanced materials 1. Characterization of materials and their performance and improvement in their properties. King Saud University 2. Materials corrosion and protection 3. Polymer characteristics, improvement and processing 1. Metals and alloys. 2. Coating 3. Semiconductors and solar cells 4. Membranes KACST 5. Polymers and polymer technology 6. Ceramics 7. Corrosion 8. Catalyst 9. Petrochemical 10 PhD 5 MSc. 10 faculty; 4-8 graduate students 30 PhD 10 MSc. 10-15 graduate students Staff size
Review of International Advanced Materials Research Institutes

The Advanced Materials Program also reviewed the activities of several research institutions around the world that have a significant focus on advanced materials. These were selected to provide examples of government research institutes that are similar in scope and purpose to that of KACSTs. The five institutions reviewed are shown in table 3.
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Strategic Context
Table 3: Selected Advanced Materials Institutions Selected Advanced Materials Institutions Institute Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Manufacturing & Materials Technology (CMMT) Division National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory (MSEL), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S. Department of Commerce Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), U.S. Department of Energy Country Australia Japan Singapore United States United States
The five research institutes conduct R&D in similar areas of advanced materials, but they each have a slightly different focus, depending on the national needs of their country. The research focus and priorities of the five organizations are summarized in table 4. Table 4: Materials Research Focus Organization Materials Research Focus Ceramics (e.g., coatings, membranes, electronic ceramics) Chemicals (e.g., biocompatible, biofunctional, membranes, nanoscale, highly porous materials with nanoscale pores) Materials characterization and performance Metals (light metals and also development of new alloys) CSIRO CMMT (Australia) Advanced and composite materials (e.g., wood and polymer composites, nanocomposites, nanomaterials, geopolymers) Plastics and polymers Renewable and biodegradable materials Textiles Wood
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Strategic Context
Organization Materials Research Focus Key nanotechnologies (e.g., nano system functionality, advanced nano characterization, among others) Nanoscale materials NIMS (Japan) Nanotech-driven materials research for information technology Nanotech-driven materials research for biotechnology Materials research for the environment and energy Materials research for reliability and safety Micro- and nano-systems A*STAR IMRE (Singapore) Molecular and performance materials Opto- and electronic systems Materials science and characterization Materials measurement and standards infrastructure Advanced manufacturing processes Biomaterials NIST MSEL (USA) Materials for electronics Nanometrology Carbon nanotubes Safety and reliability Catalysis and nano-building blocks Functional nanomaterials ORNL Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (USA) Macromolecular complex systems Nanofabrication Nanomaterials theory Nanoscale structure and dynamics: neutrons, electrons, X-rays Nanophysics: magnetism, transport, and scanning probes The institutes have several other common characteristics. All of the organizations emphasize a commitment to technology transfer to industry, and most have integrated this priority into their organizational structures. All of the research institutes in this report have collaborative linkages with other organizations, public, academic and private. For example, CSIRO has a light metals Flagship research initiative, involving an extensive partnership with many industry players, to develop ultra-light, ultrastrong recyclable metals.
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Strategic Context
Most of the research institutes have a staff size of between 200 to 500 materials researchers of varying credentials. To develop human capital, the institutes have strong partnerships with universities to mentor and train postgraduate research students, as well as guest researcher programs. NIMS, for example, has an International Center for Young Scientists, which gives young researchers from various countries and diverse research field opportunities to conduct research. Most of the institutes have facilities that they promote for external use. Users can often book the equipment online. Of note are ORNLs Spallation Neutron Source and High Flux Isotope Reactor, NISTs Center for Neutron Research (NCNR), and NISTs Center for Theoretical and Computational Materials Science. All five research institutes receive direction for their strategic plans from their respective overarching national strategic plans and/or agencies. The research institutes may also receive external guidance from industry and academia, as in the case of CSIRO, NIMS, and NIST. For this analysis, the field of advanced materials and its subfields were defined in close consultation with KACST researchers and other KSA stakeholders. KACST researchers identified seven subfields relevant to KSA strategic priorities and provided detailed lists of keyword terms that were used to develop search queries for publication and patent databases. Advanced materials R&D is a multidisciplinary field that spans many research areas, including applied physics, physical chemistry, condensed matter physics, chemical engineering, and nanoscience. The seven KSA advanced materials subfields are: membranes, composite and hybrid materials, polymers and polymer processing technologies, metals and alloys, ceramics, smart materials, and coatings. The scope of this study was restricted to only recent publication (2006-2007) and patent (2002-2006) activity in the seven KACST defined fields. Several commonly used indicators include the numbers of publications and patents, the forward citations of publications and patents (the frequency at which publications and patents are cited by other publications and patents), and the co-authoring relationships of publications. These provide indicators of research and inventive output, impact, and collaboration.
Advanced Materials R&D Indicators

Overview This section provides indicators of advanced materials R&D based on publication and patent data. Publication and patents are widely used as indicators of science and technology, although publication and patent counts alone do not fully represent the quality or scope of research.1
1 Seminal research in the use of publications as a measure of scientific productivity includes A.J. Lotka, The frequency distribution of scientific productivity, Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, vol 16 (1926); D. Price, Little Science, Big Science, (New York: Columbia university Press, 1963); J.R. Cole and S Cole, Social Stratification in Science, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1973); J. Gaston, The reward system in British and American science, (New York: John Wiley (1978); and M.F. Fox, Publication productivity among scientists: a critical review, Social Studies of Science, vol 13, 1983. 2 ISI Web of Science and Delphion were queried for scientific publication and U.S. patent application data, respectively. The ISI Web of Science is a database of peerreviewed articles in major scientific journals from around the world. Delphion is a searchable database of global patent activity, including the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The USPTO is one of the worlds major granters of patents and it has been argued that the U.S. market is so large that most important inventions from around the world are patented there.
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Strategic Context
Global Advanced Materials Publication Activity Between 2006 and 2007, there were 25397 articles published worldwide related to KSA research priorities in advanced materials. Figure 1 shows the number of

producer of related articles, generating 4782 articles over this time period. The United States was second, producing 4757 articles followed by Japan and Germany with 2365 and 1690 articles respectively. Saudi Arabia was the 46th largest producer of publications, producing 67 articles in ISI-indexed journals.
publications produced by countries over this time period.
The Peoples Republic of China was the worlds largest Figure 1: Advanced Materials Publications
UK 157 Australia
South Korea 154
Peoples R. China 478 Japan 65
Turkey
France 144 India 174 Spain 8 Italy 891 Taiwan 89 Saudi Arabia Canada 770
Germany 1,690 USA 4757 Russia
Poland
3 Throughout this report, advanced materials refers only to the subset of advanced materials defined by the KSA advanced materials program. 4 A publication is assigned to a country if any of the publications authors affiliations are located in that country. Because publications often have multiple authors, a single publication may be assigned to multiple countries. Aggregate figures, such as total global publication output, count each publication only once, but adding up sub-totals may yield a result larger than the reported total due to multiple counting.
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As shown in table 5, composite and hybrid material R&D accounts for the majority of advanced materials related publications (7886) followed by polymers and polymer Table 5: Advanced Materials Sub-topics (2006-2007) Sub-Topic Composite and Hybrid Materials Polymers and Polymer Processing Technologies Metals and Alloys Smart Materials Membrane Ceramics Coatings Publications 7886 58 540 96 878 8 14 processing technologies (5283), metals and alloys (3540), smart materials (3296), membranes (2878), ceramics (2382) and coatings (1423).
Publication Impact Average publication impact is calculated as the number of citations of articles from a particular country divided by the total number of articles published by authors from that country. For instance, a country that published 50 articles that were cited 100 times would have an average publication impact of two. Between 2006 and 2007, the United States had the highest average publication impact of all countries at 1.81 followed by Singapore (1.53) and the United Kingdom (1.43). The average publication impact for Saudi Arabia was 0.42 with 28 citations of 67 articles. The table 6 presents publication and citation counts for benchmark countries.5
5 Benchmark countries include global leaders in terms of total advanced materials output in addition to a list of specific countries provided by KACST.
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Table 6: Benchmark Country Publication Impact (2006-2007) Country USA Singapore UK Israel Oman Germany France South Korea Peoples R China Japan South Africa India Kuwait Malaysia Saudi Arabia UAE Publications 4757 9 157 177 8 1690 144 154 478 65 7 174 19 99 67 Total Citations 8607 504 1795 47 11 07 1697 1894 5001 16 69 116 10 4 8 5 Average Publication Impact 1.81 1.53 1.43 1.40 1.38 1.37 1.36 1.23 1.05 0.98 0.95 0.89 0.53 0.42 0.42 0.23
Advanced Materials Research Organizations Advanced materials R&D publications are produced at thousands of research institutions in 120 countries. As shown in table 7, the three institutions producing the largest number of publications related to advanced materials R&D are the Chinese Academy of Sciences (806), the Indian Institute of Technology (336), and Tsing Hua University (333). The Chinese Academy of Sciences is the largest producer of publications in all advanced materials sub-topic areas except ceramics. The Russian Academy of Sciences is the largest producer of ceramics related publications.
1

Composite and Hybrid Materials Metals and Alloys Membrane Ceramics Coatings Smart Materials 5 146 56 5 14 91 46 69 4 0 4 19 15 85 48 11 9 50 46 1 Polymers and Polymer Processing Technologies
Table 7: Global Advanced Materials R&D Organizations (2006-2007)
Institution
Total
Average Impact
Strategic Context
Chinese Acad Sci
806
1.61
Indian Inst Technol
6
0.78
Tsing Hua University 74 7 9 6 19 9

1.33
Univ Sci & Technol China 68 10 59 69 44 9 56 14 95 11 56 14 41 1 60 1 17 0 1 68 10 11 9 9 1 56 47 7 8
95
1.26
11
Russian Acad Sci
5
0.59
5 1 16 11 9 10
1 9 8 10 11 4
Harbin Inst Technol
0
0.46
Seoul Natl Univ
14
1.47
Univ Texas
194
1.99
Tohoku Univ
191
0.99
Natl Univ Singapore
188
1.82
Strategic Context
International Collaboration and Publication Impact In this study, international collaboration is calculated as the average number of countries represented per publication, based on authors addresses. Figure 2 plots a Figure 2: Advanced Materials Collaboration and Publication Impact (2006-2007)
2.5
countrys level of international collaboration (horizontal axis) against the average impact of its publications (vertical axis).
USA
Peoples R. China USA Japan Germany
Average Impact
1.5
Singapore Israel France Peoples R. China South Korea Japan South Africa India
UK Oman
South Korea India UK France Singapore Israel Malaysia South Africa
Germany
0.5 Malaysia
Kuwait Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates
Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates Kuwait Oman
0 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
Average Level of International Collaboration
KSA Collaboration Activity In the advanced materials field, as shown in table 8, authors affiliated with KSA institutions collaborated on a significant number of articles with authors from: Egypt
(8 publications), Lebanon (5), and the United States (5). KSA-affiliated authors also collaborated with authors from: Ireland, Italy, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Yemen, and Qatar.

Strategic Context
Table 8: KSA Publication Collaborators (2007) Country Egypt Lebanon USA Ireland Italy Turkey United Kingdom Yemen Qatar Number of Publications 8 5 5 4 4 4 1
Advanced Materials Journals Table 9: presents journals with a significant level of
publication activity related to KSA advanced materials sub-fields from (2005 - 2007).
Table 9: Advanced Materials Journals Journal JOURNAL OF APPLIED POLYMER SCIENCE COMPOSITES SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COMPOSITE STRUCTURES COMPOSITES PART A-APPLIED SCIENCE AND MANUFACTURING Composites JOURNAL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE JOURNAL OF COMPOSITE MATERIALS MATERIALS LETTERS JOURNAL OF COMPOSITES FOR CONSTRUCTION JOURNAL OF REINFORCED PLASTICS AND COMPOSITES MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING A-STRUCTURAL MATERIALS PROPERTIES MICROSTRUCTURE AND PROCESSING Publications 04 151 15 1 11 111 109 101 99
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Journal SURFACE & COATINGS TECHNOLOGY JOURNAL OF APPLIED POLYMER SCIENCE APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE LANGMUIR Coatings NANOTECHNOLOGY THIN SOLID FILMS ELECTROCHIMICA ACTA MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING A-STRUCTURAL MATERIALS PROPERTIES MICROSTRUCTURE AND PROCESSING APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN CERAMIC SOCIETY JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CERAMIC SOCIETY SURFACE & COATINGS TECHNOLOGY RARE METAL MATERIALS AND ENGINEERING Ceramics MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING A-STRUCTURAL MATERIALS PROPERTIES MICROSTRUCTURE AND PROCESSING JOURNAL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS CERAMICS INTERNATIONAL JAPANESE JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS PART 1-REGULAR PAPERS BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS & REVIEW PAPERS JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS Publications 150 0 8 6 6 1 18 17 17 101 68 47 46 41 7 1 9 8 8
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Journal SURFACE & COATINGS TECHNOLOGY MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING A-STRUCTURAL MATERIALS PROPERTIES MICROSTRUCTURE AND PROCESSING Metals and Alloys CORROSION SCIENCE RARE METAL MATERIALS AND ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS OF NONFERROUS METALS SOCIETY OF CHINA ELECTROCHIMICA ACTA MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS JOURNAL OF ALLOYS AND COMPOUNDS SCRIPTA MATERIALIA APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE DESALINATION SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY Membrane INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY RESEARCH JOURNAL OF POWER SOURCES LANGMUIR NEPHROLOGY DIALYSIS TRANSPLANTATION JOURNAL OF APPLIED POLYMER SCIENCE NANOTECHNOLOGY PERITONEAL DIALYSIS INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED POLYMER SCIENCE ELECTROCHIMICA ACTA POLYMER SYNTHETIC METALS Polymer POLYMER DEGRADATION AND STABILITY MACROMOLECULES JOURNAL OF POLYMER SCIENCE PART A-POLYMER CHEMISTRY BIOMATERIALS EUROPEAN POLYMER JOURNAL JOURNAL OF POWER SOURCES Publications 5 1 150 108 104 8 75 75 6 61 80 157 60 44 41 40 5 0 0 04 11 111 9 90 88 78 7 71 67
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Strategic Context
Journal APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS THIN SOLID FILMS JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS Smart Materials SOLAR ENERGY MATERIALS AND SOLAR CELLS JAPANESE JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS PART 1-REGULAR PAPERS BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS & REVIEW PAPERS JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS JOURNAL OF POLYMER SCIENCE PART A-POLYMER CHEMISTRY MOLECULAR CRYSTALS AND LIQUID CRYSTALS CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS Publications 01 1 9 90 89 7 64 56 5 51
Advanced Materials Patent Activity Between 2002 and 2006, there were 8973 advanced materials-related patent applications filed with the United States Patent Office (USPTO). As shown in table 10, the majority of these (4988) listed at least one inventor from the United States. Other countries with a significant number of inventors include: Japan (1551 applications), Germany (721 applications), and South Korea (386 applications). There was one advanced materials-related patent application that listed an inventor from Saudi Arabia over this time period. Highly luminescent color-selective nanocrystalline materials6 involved the collaboration of inventors from Saudi Arabia, Spain, and the United States.
6 Bawendi, Moungi, Jensen, Klaus F., Dabbousi, Bashir O., Rodriguez-Viejo, Javier, Mikulec, Frederic Victor. U.S. Patent Application # 20040033359, 2004.
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Strategic Context
Table 10: Advanced Materials Patents (2002-2006) Composite Membranes and Hybrid Materials 179 8 8 17 8 1 11 19 5 1 0 1 110 71 4 8 19 11 0 8 0 Polymers & Polymer Processing Technologies 844 774 1 78 99 191 154 115 100 47 0 Metals and Alloys 1 119 19 9 11 5 17 11 7 0
Country
Ceramics
Smart Materials 49 75 64 46 1 5 14 5 9 0
Coatings
Total
United States Japan Germany South Korea Taiwan United Kingdom France Canada Netherlands Italy Saudi Arabia
196 6 15 17 11 5 6 17 0
964 171 6 47 4 9 7 16 1
4988 1551 71 86 16 95 57 14 1 108 1
While the majority of advanced materials related patent applications are defined as individually owned patent applications (5,986 applications) by the United States Patent Office, some institutions are designated as the patent assignee on a number of applications. These institutions, which have a record as inventors, could be targets for future collaboration. As shown in table 11,
Eastman Kodak Co. is listed as the patent assignee on 93 advanced materials applications followed by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (85 applications), Polymer Group, Inc. (55 applications), and 3M Innovative Properties Company (54 applications). The single patent with an inventor from Saudi Arabia lists Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the patent assignee.
Table 11: Leading Advanced Materials Assignees (2002-2006) USTPO Assignee Individually Owned Patents Eastman Kodak Co. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Polymer Group, Inc. 3M Innovative Properties Company No. of Patents Apps. 5986 9 85 55 54
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Strategic Context
SWOT Analysis This section represents a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis of the Saudi Arabia Advanced Materials Program relative to achieving its vision. In a SWOT analysis, terms are defined as follows: Strengths: attributes of an organization that are helpful to achieving the objective. Weaknesses: attributes of an organization that are harmful to achieving the objective. Opportunities: external conditions that are helpful to achieving the objective. Threats: external conditions that are harmful to achieving the objective. Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the organization, while opportunities and threats are external to the organization. For the purpose of this analysis, the organization is the Saudi Advanced Materials Program, including KACST, universities, other government agencies, and companies. The SWOT analysis is summarized in table 12.
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Strategic Context
Table 12: Advanced Materials SWOT Analysis Helpful Internal Strengths: Major petroleum and petrochemical and minerals producers that provide feedstock for advanced materials and have advanced materials needs. Ample financial resources. Domestic customers for advanced materials in water, health, defense, transportation and construction. Some research capability in universities, industry, and KACST. Weaknesses: Weak overall position in materials research and technology. Weak human resources base -- no material science departments in universities. Poor mobility and adaptability of human resources (once a physicist, students remain tied to physics). Inflexibility in human resource regulations (e.g. difficult to hire and retain good people in government. Logistics in obtaining research supplies. Insufficient international linkages. Weak industry-government- university linkages. Weak culture and history of R&D and successful innovation. Weak implementation of planning. Weak manufacturing sector (outside of petroleum and petrochemicals) to make use of advanced materials. External Opportunities: Potential to produce high-value added materials based on KSA raw materials. Growing domestic and international markets for water and solar technologies. National strategy of investing in science and technology. Potential to collaborate domestically and internationally. Education of future scientists. Threats: International competition -- other countries are moving faster (see Appendix 2). Constraints on needed reforms. Instability in financial support and policies. Saudization of education and research. Harmful
0
Strategic Context
The overall strengths of the Kingdom in advanced materials are its large natural resource-based firms, its financial resources, and its domestic market for advanced materials. The Kingdom has several weaknesses with respect to advanced materials. Research institutes, including universities, government, and industry, do not rank among the top worldwide institutions. Human resources for advanced materials research are generally weak. There are no materials science departments or curricula in universities. There is poor mobility and adaptability of human resources - it is difficult for physicists or chemists to move into materials science. Human resource regulations are inflexible, making it difficult to hire and retain good people in government. Saudi researchers have insufficient collaboration with others in the Kingdom, their counterparts in industry, or in other countries. There is little track record of successful innovation or of successful implementation of planning initiatives. Another weakness is that it is difficult to obtain research supplies. Finally, outside of the petroleum and petrochemical industries, the manufacturing sectors that provide the demand for advanced materials are relatively weak. There are opportunities to take advantage of the Saudi national strategy to invest more heavily in science and technology, combined with the potential to leverage the Kingdoms strength in natural resources to compete in higher value added products. The main threat is that international competitors are not standing still, and, indeed, seem to be moving faster than Saudi Arabia. The initiatives in this plan have been designed to take advantage of the KSA strengths and to address the weaknesses, while keeping aware of the opportunities and threats. To take advantage of the KSA strengths, programs have been designed to focus on areas of special KSA needs and markets, and to build on existing capabilities. To counteract the weaknesses, programs have been designed to expand government-university-industry collaboration, to focus on innovation, and to train students and researchers in materials science.
1
Higher Strategy
The Program higher strategy is represented by its Vision, Mission, Values and Strategic Goals. These are derived with consideration of the goals and objectives of the National Policy for Science and Technology and Key Needs of the Kingdom.
Vision
The vision for advanced materials science and technology in the Kingdom is: The Kingdom will leverage its unique strengths and needs to become a world leader in specific advanced materials technologies and an exporter of high value-added advanced materials. The Kingdom shall have an effective innovation system that has strong linkages between research and education and between industries, universities, and government. A key aspect of this vision is that it is focused on innovation in areas of particular importance to the Kingdom. The near-term vision for the Kingdom is not to be strong in all areas of materials or to be a world leader in fundamental research, but rather to focus on the areas where the Kingdom has potential competitive advantages and can apply technology to the Kingdoms economic and social needs.
Mission
The mission of the Advanced Material Program is to support an effective innovation system for advanced materials in the Kingdom through: research, development, technology transfer, and localization in areas of national need; collaborations among national and international research institutions; actions to develop human resources for advanced materials; and the planning, developing, and operating of major materials research facilities.

Higher Strategy
Values and Program Culture
To achieve excellence, the program will develop an internal culture through both the sponsorship of its leadership and commitment of its operational teams, based on the following values: Excellence of work. Professional integrity and ethical behavior. Openness and transparency. Commitment to achieving objectives. Support of creativity and innovation. Teamwork and collaboration.
Program Strategic Goals

The Program Strategic Goals are to: Improve the contribution of advanced materials to the critical national needs and the competitiveness of KSA industry. Enable a domestic technology-based advanced materials industries in key areas (such as membranes and catalysis). Raise KSAs international position of advanced material. Improve the Kingdoms human resources and institutions for advanced materials R&D.

Technology Areas
Selection Process
The Advanced Materials program selected technologies based on input from the programs stakeholders through the stakeholders workshop and the programs advisory committee. The main criteria The advisory of existing R&D capabilities, the Kingdoms current position in the technology, and the market impact of the technology.
were the needs of industry or other stakeholders. committee also considered the potential for the Kingdom to develop a strong position in the technology, based on the presence or absence
Selected Technology Areas

The following are key advanced materials technologies for the Kingdom grouped into major categories, although there is some overlap among the categories.7 Membranes Advanced function membranes for use especially in water treatment as well as other industrial applications. Relevant technologies include developing non-biofouling materials, chemical and scale resistant membranes, high reverse osmosis rejection and permeability membranes, and gas separation and sterilization membranes. Filtration membranes. Nano-, micro-, and ultra-filtration membranes are vital for the water sectors and also have applications in the petroleum, petrochemical, and biomedical sectors in the Kingdom. Composite and Hybrid Materials Corrosion-resistant materials, especially for high temperature and high sulfur environments, are critical to the petroleum, petrochemical, and water sectors. Sulfur resistant materials are also important for aircraft.
7 There is no single clear taxonomy of materials technologies, since materials are commonly grouped by both functional purpose (e.g. corrosion resistance, catalysis), application field (e.g. biomedical materials, electronic materials), or by type of material (e.g. ceramics, metals).
4
Technology Areas
Composites are needed for construction, pipelines, optical fibers, and water services (such as pipeline, storage, processing, disposal etc.). Major technical challenges relate to design, joining, manufacturing processes, and installation. There are also issues with training and standards that limit applications. Non-destructive testing (NDT) technologies, Smart Materials Advanced functional materials include photo-, thermo-, piezo-, tribo-, and electro-chromatic materials, and smart glass for use in construction. Other smart materials include multifunctional materials and switchable systems for use in textiles, food packaging, and solar applications. Polymers and Polymer Processing Advanced polymer technologies have broad industrial uses including oil and natural gas drilling, pipeline and storage tanks, electronics, textiles, agriculture, water, dentistry, and drug delivery. New classes of polymers and polymer processes including resin systems and high temperature ablative resins, and nanostructured biodegradable polymers, water soluble Coating Corrosion resistant, self-cleaning, and healing coatings; light, heat, and pressure switchable coatings for various industrial applications. Development of UV light resistant coatings and Metals and Alloys Advanced functions include duplex and ferritic steels for thermal plants, materials for desalination plants, materials to reduce high temperature stress corrosion cracking, and materials for specialized uses in medical applications. Specialized alloys include corrosion and erosion resistant and high temperature and strength alloys for use in water treatment, construction, and oil and gas industries, defense and aerospace applications. metallic and thermal barrier coatings also for use in textiles, food packaging, and oil and gas drilling and transport. polymers, flame retardants, Silicon crystalline based silicon), materials silicon including wafers, (poly/mono semiconductor especially applied to composites and other advanced materials are important in the petroleum, petrochemical and water sectors. Welding Technologies are important for petroleum and water sectors. Ceramics Development of specialized ceramics such as aluminum oxide, tungsten carbides, and refractory oxide dispersion strengthened alloys for use in insulation, medical implants, and new building materials.
processing materials, silicon nano-particles, and silicon oxide nano-particles, for applications in electronics and other industries, Silane; Silicones. Heat transfer materials, to both aid and reduce heat flow, with applications in many industries
UV light stabilizers, and nanoparticles for polymer reinforcement.
5
Technology Areas
Program Structure
Overview Figure 3 provides a schematic diagram of the proposed Advanced Materials Program. It consists of three main subprograms: KACST, university-based Technology Innovation Centers (TIC), and other existing research centers. The activities of other existing research centers, while coordinated as part of the overall program, are not presented in detail in this plan.
Figure 3: Structure of Advanced Materials Program National Center for Advanced Materials
KACST (National Lab) hosts the center, which serves as a facility. The Centers technical board including the other centers.
University-industry centers that are funded primarily by government but receive industrial support and have an industrial advisory committee. Centers will develop knowledge and technology in areas of industrial importance and will train students in areas of importance to industry.
Technology Innovation Centers
Advanced materials research activities in these centers is focused on operational solutions and some basic research activity conducted in coordination with the national center and centers of excellence.
Other Existing Research Centers (e.g. SWCC, Aramco, SABIC)
Role of KACST in Advanced Materials KACST will be responsible for (1) advanced materials planning and policy leadership; (2) conducting applied research and development on problems of national importance, and (3) providing high quality research facilities and technical support to university and industry researchers. 1. Planning and Policy Leadership. The planning and policy leadership function will be especially important in the early years of the advanced materials program. It will have several objectives. In this function, the national center will: Provide direct and ongoing ways for material users to provide input to R&D priorities such as through workshops organized by sector (oil and gas, medical,
defense, etc.) and by technology area (membranes, polymers, composites, etc.) Develop technology roadmaps in key areas of advanced materials that define the technical advances needed in specific time frames, and define the roles of university, industry, and government. Prioritize and organize advanced materials R&D programs. Develop a national plan for materials research facilities (see below). Support an advisory board, made up of key stakeholders, that will oversee the development of the plan, budget and resource allocations, and execution of the plan. Develop an advanced materials human resource plan that will estimate the need for researchers and technicians
6
Technology Areas
and the skills needed, and determine how to meet these needs through education, training, and international hiring. Promote universities. Support an advanced materials professional society to exchange knowledge and build trust among members of the KSA advanced materials research community. Advocate changes in national policies that affect many areas of technology, including: - Legal framework to support technology partnerships - Procedures for sharing of research equipment Incentives and accountability for researchers to Policies on employment of non-Saudis and women 3. Research Facilities and Related Human Resources The objective in this area is to provide KSA researchers with access to state-of-the-art research equipment. An important role for national laboratories is to provide for advanced research facilities that can be shared by many users. Examples around the world include light sources (synchrotrons or accelerators), advanced microscopes, 2. Applied Research and Development Most specific areas of applied research and development conducted by KACST, in collaboration with universities and other research institutes, will be determined as an outcome of the detailed planning and technology platforms described above. as follows: more applied and time-urgent. larger scale. require specialized (e.g, nuclear materials) facilities KACST will conduct a combination of independent and client (either government agency or industry) funded work. Independent projects will be prioritized according to their potentially beneficial economic or R&D conducted at the national center will typically differ from university work KACST work in this area will begin with the development of both a near- and a long-term plan to acquire, or acquire access to, the modern analytical equipment needed to conduct the research needed to meet current and emerging national R&D needs in materials.8 The plan will begin by developing an inventory of current experimental and test facilities in the Kingdom and an inventory of the types of equipment needed in the priority research magnet laboratories, ion beam facilities, neutron sources, high temperature facilities, clean rooms, pilot processing plants, and many other types of facilities. Such facilities are expensive and may be technically challenging to build and operate; many have had significant cost and time overruns. Careful planning is important. improve research productivity researchers - Improved primary and secondary school education in math and science a material science curriculum in humanitarian impact on the Kingdom. For each project, there will be a clear path or paths through which the project is likely to provide evident, desirable, and timely benefits to the Kingdom. This may be through solving important problems in existing industries, enabling a technological advancement in an emerging or needed industry, or meeting an unmet need that will result in a new KSA industry of significant size (either homegrown or through foreign investment). Programs will involve both KACST R&D and extramural funding of existing research centers
Examples of such plans include European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (2006). European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures Report 2006, and U.S.
Department of Energy (2003). Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook.
7
Technology Areas
fields. The plan will identify which needs can be met adequately through arrangements with existing regional and international centers. The plan will then prioritize and design to acquire the new facilities needed for the Kingdom. The plan will also consider the training needed for KSA scientists and technicians to build and operate the facilities. This planning will be conducted jointly with groups in related areas that share needs for research equipment, including physics, nanotechnology, petroleum and petrochemicals, and water, because of their mutual need for similar instrumentation. Based on this plan, KACST will establish a National User Facility containing a comprehensive and integrated array of up-to-date scientific equipment, supported by a well-trained technical staff. The facilities and technical staff will support university and industrial researchers as well as KACST researchers. KACST will develop policies and procedures for prioritizing the use of these facilities by various parties. KACST will also develop policies to facilitate the flow of research supplies including solvents, resins, chemicals, etc. needed in materials research. A major national technology project to be managed by KACST, in conjunction with SWCC and universities, is R&D in membrane technology. This project will transfer membrane manufacturing techniques and develop new technologies with the goal of supporting membrane manufacturing and innovation in the Kingdom. This project will also support the water scarcity plan that relies on desalination as a strategic option. Another proposed national project is the development of advanced materials in the field of medical applications, to be conducted primarily at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre. This would strengthen the research activities and tools for the applications of KACST will run a competition for the multi-year support University TICs in Advanced Materials The University TICs in Advanced Materials Program will include financial support for several university-industry research centers in advanced materials, coordinated with KACST activities, in such key areas as: Engineering materials corrosion, biomedical, composites, ceramics. Membranes - water, medical, petrochemical. Materials processing catalysts, etc. Coatings & smart materials. The goals of these centers are to: Develop a critical mass of expertise at universities in areas of research that are important to industry. Expand human resources for advanced materials by training students in technical fields of direct relevance to industry. Build trust and collaboration among industry and academia. Change the culture of universities to emphasize systems level work and work on important problems. Each academic center will primarily be funded by government but will be expected to obtain partial funding from industry, which will serve to ensure that the centers studies are focused on real industrial needs. Each center will also have an industrial advisory board. Each center will involve both undergraduate and graduate students in research, preparing them for employment in areas of industrial need. The output will be new knowledge and technology, but equally important, students who are trained in conducting research on projects with direct relevance to industry and other users. molecular imaging and treatment by using the proton/ carbon method. This will contribute to new methods of diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of disease.
8
Technology Areas
of such centers, and an external review committee will evaluate their performance over time, recommending continuation or termination, as appropriate. The universities will be free to define the technical focus of their centers, but the involvement of industrial advisors and the requirement of significant industrial cost-sharing should help ensure that relevant and useful results are produced. The Centers will be intimately involved in the KACST planning process described above. From this process, the Centers will receive guidance about user needs. The Centers will also be an important source of technical input to the processes. Current Research Centers The third element of the Advanced Materials Program is made up of the existing research centers that have some advanced materials activities. There are several existing university materials centers, including: The King Saud University (KSU) Center of Excellence on engineering materials. The KSU SABIC Polymer Research Center. Various centers at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) and the KFUPM Research Institute, which is a contract research institute affiliated with the university. Although not yet established, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is also expected to have significant materials research activities, starting in 2009. In addition to the university centers, there are several industrial and medical research centers that conduct materials related research, including: King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSHRC). Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) Saline Water Desalination Research Institute. Aramco Research and Development Center, which includes a materials science division Saudi Arabian Basic Industry Corporation (SABIC) In addition, several KACST institutes or technology programs have activities related to advanced materials. These include: Petrochemicals. Water. Aerospace. Nanotechnology. Math and Physics. Atomic Energy. Energy. All of these research centers currently receive their main funding from a variety of sources, and will continue receive the major funding from outside of the Advanced Materials Program. But all of these centers will be involved in the Advanced Materials Program in several ways. They may receive funding from the Materials Program to support the centers participation in national advanced materials projects. They will also participate in the planning activities, and members of these centers will participate in the Advanced Materials Advisory Committee. The centers will share information to ensure that they collaborate in areas where it is beneficial and appropriate for them to do so.
9
Program Implementation
Portfolio Management
The Advanced Materials Program will include a variety of projects with different goals and objectives. The program will be managed to achieve a balance across multiple objectives. include: Some factors to be considered in program balance
The balance between projects to achieve an immediate objective versus building long-term capacity (especially human resources) for the program. The balance between meeting the needs of existing companies versus establishing new technology-based industries in the Kingdom. The balance between low risk incremental projects and high risk/high return projects. The balance among different national needs and major stakeholders (water, petroleum, petrochemical, medical, etc.). The program manager and advisory committee will review the program to ensure that it maintains an appropriate balance among these factors.
Program Management
Organizational Structure and Performance Indicators The Advanced Materials Program will be directed by a Program Manager, who will be a KACST employee, and responsible for the overall execution of the plan. The Advanced Materials Advisory Committee will oversee the implementation of the plan. It will provide advice to the Program Manager, and will also report to the National S&T Plan Supervisory Committee, which will oversee all of the Strategic Technology Programs. The Advanced Materials Advisory Committee will meet approximately four times a year and review progress in the program and approve updates to the plan as necessary. Key
40
performance indicators will be established for each subprogram. General long-term performance indicators include: Growth or establishment of technology-based businesses due to the Advanced Materials program. Amount of revenue or jobs created. Successful importation and adaptation of technology resulting in new businesses or applications. Number of licenses and amount of licensing revenue to universities and research institutes. Number of advanced materials-related patents. Private sector funding of university and KACST Advanced Materials research (indicates the value private sector places on university or KACST R&D). Number and level of presentations in international conferences. Changes in policies (described previously) to improve advanced materials R&D in the Kingdom. Number and impact of publications. Extent of domestic and international R&D collaborations. Numbers of materials science advanced degrees awarded. In the near term, the program will be evaluated on the progress in implementing this plan, including the establishment of the national facilities at KACST and the university-industry centers, the implementation of applied research programs, the development of technology roadmaps and the facilities plan, and the development of policies to improve advanced materials R&D. The advisory committee will also sponsor and oversee studies of emerging areas of advanced materials to serve as the basis for developing new program areas. This plan is intended to be a dynamic document that will be updated at least annually and more frequently if required. In addition to the advisory committee input, it is expected that workshops with the research community, users, and other stakeholders will also contribute to both a continual evolution of the plan as well as a stronger advanced materials R&D network in the Kingdom.
41
Key Management Issues Two key management issues are quality management and human resources. With respect to quality management, the Advanced Materials Program will follow international best practices for science and technology programs. Elements of this plan include: Advisory committee review of the overall program design and budget. Competitive, peer-reviewed selection processes for university-based research centers and projects. Annual reviews of technology development projects to ensure that milestones are being met. Periodic (every 5 years) evaluation of the Advanced Materials Program conducted by a review committee supported by an experienced evaluator. Procedures will be developed for disclosing and managing potential conflicts of interest among reviewers. In many cases, some international experts will be used on review panels to reduce possible conflicts of interest and to provide an independent external assessment. With respect to human resources, the availability of skilled people, including both researchers and technical managers and leaders, is likely to be a limiting factor in the growth and success of the KSA Advanced Materials program. The program will require substantial number of materials professionals, including additional researchers, technical managers, and technical leaders at KACST, universities, and companies. In the short-run, a critical need is to recruit people with appropriate skills to KACST for Advanced Materials to manage the various tracks of this plan. Without the ability to recruit people with adequate knowledge of advanced materials and program management skills, the plan will not meet its goals. In the near term, other strategies to expand the human resources for the materials program are: Allow salary flexibility to be able to pay competitive, market-based salaries to attract key people. Change policies to allow more international hiring, to bring specialized expertise to the Kingdom. Train researchers to become R&D managers and leaders. This plan is designed to help increase the number of materials researchers over the long term through its emphasis on university-industry centers and the development of material science curriculum for universities. These university-industry centers will be designed to train new students with the research and innovation skills needed by research organizations and industry.
4
Appendices
Appendix A - Plan Development Process and Participants
The development of this plan was overseen by the Advanced Materials Advisory Committee. A one-day stakeholder workshop was held on June 17, 2007 to receive input from a wide range of stakeholders. The workshop focused on the needs of the Kingdom in Advanced Materials, outlined programs to meet the needs, and identify barriers to success. Following the workshop, the advisory committee met on a weekly or biweekly basis to provide input and review drafts of the plan. List below are the members of the advisory committee, as well as the participants in the workshop.
Advanced Materials Advisory Committee Khalid A. Aleissa Director of Institute of Atomic Energy Research King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology Abdullah I. Almarshad Prof. of Materials Eng &Corrosion Head, Corrosion Research Group King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology Ahmed Alyamani Deputy Director of Nanotechnology Center King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology Gasem M. Fallatah Non-Metallic Materials Specialist Saudi Aramco Abdullah M. Asiri Prof. of Organic Chemistry King Abdulaziz University
4
Appendices
Ibrahim AlJammaz Senior Scientist, Deputy Chairman Cyclotron Radiopharmaceuticals King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre luai Al-Hadhrami Center Director for Engineering Research King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals Maher A. Alodan Vice President for Research Alfaisal University Rafea F. AL-Shehri Operation Research, R&D Department Ministry of Defense and Aviation Abdulrahman M. Abanmy Reverse Osmosis Desalination Specialist Saline Water Conversion Corporation Tariq Shukri Deputy Director of Institute of Atomic Energy Research King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology Mohammed S. AlSuhybani Scientific researcher Atomic Energy Research Institute King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology
44
Appendices
Participants in Advanced Materials Stakeholders Workshop Table: A-1 Participants in Advanced Materials Stakeholders Workshop Participant Abdulaziz A. Alsugair Abdullah A. AlMahadef Abdullah I. Almarshad Abdullah M. Asiri AbdullrahmenA. Almuhanna Abdulrahman M. Abanmy Ahmed A. Basfar Ahmed AlSaya Ahmed M. Hala Asmail N. Andijani Gasem M. Fallatah Hamed F. Alharbi Hamed N. Alwashmi HunJai Bae Ibrahaim AlJammaz K.M. Idriss Ali Khaled A. Aladeli Khalid A. Aleissa Magdi M. AlRayes Maher A. Alodan Maher Essahab Mazen A. Babbad Mohammed A. AlDosari Mohammed A. Bahattab Mohammed Husain Mohammed Momen Mohammed S. AlSuhybani KACST Ministry of Water and Electricity KACST KAAU KACST SWCC KACST KACST KACST SWCC Saudi Aramco KSU SWCC KACST KFSHRC KACST KACST KACST KSU Alfaisal University KSU KACST KACST KACST KACST Momen Consult Office KACST Organization
45
Appendices
Participant Mohmoud S. Soliman Nabil H. AlHarthi Olgun Buven Osamah Draihem Rabeh Elleithy Rafa F. AlShahri Sakhawat Hussain Sultan A. AlMutari Suliman Alkhweiter Syed Sabir Tariq M. Shaukri Zain H. Yammani KSU KSU Hacetlepa Univesitu, Ankare, Turkey KSU KSU Ministry of Defense and Aviation KACST Saudi Aramco KACST KACST KACST KFUPM Organization
*KACST= King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology *KFUPM=King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals *SWCC=Saline Water Conversion Corporation *KFSHRC=King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre *KSU= King Saud University *KAAU=King Abdulaziz University
46
Appendices
Appendix B - Supporting Analyses and References
Following are some of the references reviewed in the process of developing this roadmap: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (2002). Enabling the Future: A Perspective on UK Materials Research. An international review of materials science & technology research in UK universities. European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (2006). European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures Report 2006 SRI International. (2007) Strategic Review: Advanced Materials. Unpublished report, August 2007. SRI International. (2007) Analysis of Status and Trends of Saudi Arabian Advanced Materials Publications and Patents. Unpublished report. August 2007. U.S. Department of Energy (2003). Facilities for the
Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook.
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www.kacst.edu.sa
King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology Doc. No. 22P0001-PLN-0001-ER01
DAKKIN 01 478 8584
Tel 488 3555 - 488 3444 Fax 488 3756 P.O. Box 6086 Riyadh 11442 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia www.kacst.edu.sa
Building and Construction Water Medical & Health ECP Nanotechnology
Environment
Information Technology
Petrochemicals
Biotechnology
Energy
Agricultural
Strategic Priorities for Advanced Medical and Health Research Agricultural Technology
Strategic Priorities for Agricultural Research
Contents
Executive Summary Introduction Background Scope Plan Development Process Strategic Context Agricultural Production in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Key National Issues and Challenges Science and Technology Activity in the Kingdom Analysis of Comparable Agricultural R&D Institutes Analysis of Publications and Patents in Agricultural Technology Global Trends in Agricultural R&D Kingdoms Agricultural R&D Needs SWOT Analysis for KSA Agricultural Research and Innovation Higher Strategy Vision Mission Program Values and Culture Program Strategic Goals Technology Areas Selected Technology Areas
4 6 7 7 8 10 11 14 16 19 0 30 3 33 34 34 34 34 35 36 36
Contents
Appendix A: Stakeholders and Strategy Participants Study Team Members Participating Experts Stakeholders Representatives 4 4 43 43
Executive Summary
The National Policy for Science and Technology, approved by the Council of Ministers in 1423 H (2002 G), defined programs for localization and development of strategic technologies that are essential for the Kingdoms future development. The King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) was given responsibility for developing 5-year strategic and implementation plans for each of these 14 technology programs. However, remain to many be critical issues For addressed. In addition, KACST facilitated agriculture in certain areas and certain crops has threatened the rural-urban development balance as well as the balance across the sectors value chain. Lack of policy attention and programmatic interventions limited have in resulted in growth value-added strategic planning in key applied technology areas that draw upon fundamental technologies and impact human lives.
example, the country has limited water resources and expansion of water-intensive farming has put additional stress on the national water resources. Expansion of
manufactured food products.
Given these and other challenges and the accelerating pace of progress in science and technology around the world, it is a national imperative for the Kingdom to draw appropriate technology road maps and strategies for the agricultural sector. Realizing the impending need to address important challenges facing the sector, agricultural technology research and innovation have received utmost priority in the countrys science policy agenda. In keeping with its national policy making and technology planning responsibility, KACST collaborated with major stakeholders to develop a National Agricultural Technology for the Kingdom. This document embodies the product of that stakeholder-driven strategic planning endeavor. This plan is based on input from the users and stakeholders of agricultural technology in the Kingdom, including research organizations, government agencies, universities and industry. The plan received extensive input, review, and comment from stakeholders as well as experts from reputed global institutions.
Executive Summary
The planning processes Identified the key needs of the Kingdom for agricultural research and innovation Assessed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the program, including an analysis of KSA research performance Defined a mission and vision for the program Defined the key technologies and other program areas needed to address the Kingdoms needs in agricultural research and innovation In addition to the technical needs, strategy participants identified a number of areas where policies need to be changed or barriers removed to facilitate agricultural technology innovation. These needs include: Policies to facilitate research and development (R&D) collaboration between KACST, universities, and industry. Policy and organizational changes in research performing institutions Expanded human resources for R&D. Provision of incentives, learning opportunities and career development paths for research professionals. A number of priority technology areas emerged from this process. These are categorized under the following higher-level categories: Production
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Plant Production Animal Production Aquaculture
Manufacturing - Food - Non-food - Aquaculture Natural Resources - Pastures and Forests - Genetic Origins
Introduction
Background The King Abdulaziz City for Science andTechnology (KACST) was directed by its charter of 1986 to propose a national policy for the development of science and technology and to devise the strategy and plans necessary to implement them. In accordance with this charter, KACST launched a comprehensive effort in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy and Planning (MoEP), to develop a long-term national policy on science and technology. In July 2002, the Council of Ministers approved the national policy for science and technology, entitled The Comprehensive, Long-Term, National Science and Technology Policy.
KACST and MoEP embarked on a national effort in collaboration with stakeholders to develop the national plan for science, technology and innovation (STI), which drew up the future direction of science, technology and innovation in the Kingdom, considering the role of KACST as well as that of that of universities, government, industry, and society at large. The plan encompasses eight major programs, depicted in figure 1, as follows: Strategic and advanced technologies. Scientific research and technical development capabilities. Transfer, development, and localization of technology. Science, technology, and society. Scientific and technical human resources. Diversifying financial support resources. Science, technology, and innovation system. Institutional structures for science, technology, and innovation.
Introduction
Figure 1: Science and Technology Plan
an Hum ces our Res
Strategic Technologies
Society
Techn olog Transfe ies Locali r & zation

R Cap &D abi litie s
l cia an rces Fin ou s Re
Private Sector Research & Education Institutes Ministries & Government Institutes
Ad
mi n NS istra TIP tio n
, ce & ien y, Sc olog ety i n ch oc Te he S t
Re NST gu IP lat ion s
National Science, Technology & Innovation Plan {NSTIP}
In the Strategic Technologies area, KACST is responsible for 5-year strategic and implementation plans for 14 technologies. In addition, KACST facilitates strategic planning in key applied technology areas that draw upon fundamental technologies and impact human lives. In keeping with this responsibility, KACST collaborated with relevant stakeholders to develop an agricultural technology strategy for the Kingdom. This document embodies the product of that stakeholder-driven strategic planning endeavor.
Scope
The scope of this plan is national: it is an agriculture research and innovation plan for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It details the strategic plan for acquisition, development and transfer of agricultural technologies in the Kingdom for the next five years (2010-2015). It was developed by KACSTs strategic planning department, in a coordinated effort involving key public and private sector organizations from food and agriculture stakeholders.
Introduction
The plan sets a vision and mission and strategic objectives aligned with the goals of the National Science & Technology Plan, taking into consideration the current and prospective scientific and research potential and needs of the Kingdom. It identifies stakeholders and users, determines the highest priority areas, and sets ambitious, yet realizable goals for the program. The plan focuses on three main issues: production, manufacturing and natural resources. Within each focal area, sub-areas are identified and specific paths to technologies and applications are developed to meet the goals of the national strategic plan.
Plan Development Process

The development of this plan began with identifying the stakeholders and users of agriculture research and innovation in the Kingdom. An assessment of broad national development goals, followed by a deep analysis of current activities, needs and challenges, set the foundation for the research strategy development phase. Understanding current and emerging technology trends, combined with an understanding of the national needs, allowed the strategy development team to set national technology goals and identify paths to attain those goals. The plan development methodology is summarized in figure 2.
Introduction
Figure 2: Plan Development Methodology
National Goals
Field Visits
Previous Plan
Analysis of current technology status SWOT National Goals Workshop and discussions with relevant experts Selection of world centers for technology transfer KSA current capabilities Plan program implementation
Key Goals Definition
Strategic Plan
As presented above, a series of workshops, which included experts in fields related to agricultural technology, was held to evaluate the Kingdoms current status in terms of production, pastures and mechanization. In these workshops, the most significant regional and international agreements, as well as relevant legislations and laws were discussed. R&D related stakeholders were identified and convened to exchange views. Current global technology trends were examined and challenges and issues facing agriculture in the Kingdom assessed. A SWOT analysis was conducted before the Kingdoms key R&D needs and priorities in agriculture were identified.
Strategic Context
The Kingdoms to be population is estimated approximately
27 million, and growing at 2.9% annually. This rate of growth, the highest in the world, implies a growing demand on agricultural goods and to raises the significant agricultural challenges
sector in the Kingdom. Agricultural technologies will help improve agricultural production both in quality and volume, and limit the depletion of water resources.
These technologies are also expected to develop the food manufacturing industry, while optimizing the utilization of the Kingdoms resources. Given the accelerating pace of progress in science and technology, it has become necessary for the Kingdom to draw appropriate technology road maps and strategies. These plans would serve the agricultural sector, which is one of the pillars of the Kingdoms national economy and a central component of the countrys food security. Strategic priorities of the agricultural technologies program revolve around three focal areas of the sectors value chain: agricultural production, agricultural manufacturing, and natural resources.
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Strategic Context
Agricultural Production in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Once dominated by traditional practices, Saudi Arabias agricultural sector has evolved rapidly, adopted modern production and marketing approaches and succeeded in generating export revenues. The value-add generated by the Saudi farming sector grew from SR 0.99 billion in 1969 to SR 37.19 billion (USD 9.92 billion) in 2004. The sector is estimated to have grown at 10.9% annually over this period, compared to an annual GDP growth of 11.6%. The agricultural sector accounts for nearly 7.2% of the Saudi production sector workforce. It employed 596.7 thousand workers in 2004, compared to 470.0 thousand workers in 1984. The agricultural sector is as important as the industrial sector in terms of job creation, with the exception of the oil and petrochemical industries, which alone account for 607 thousand jobs. Plant Production The overall harvest area in the Kingdom covered a surface of 1.074 million hectares in 2007, as shown in the following table, with a grains harvest area of 582,000 ha yielding nearly 2.967 tons. The Kingdom also produces many vegetable crops, with a harvest area of nearly 112,000 ha, yielding approximately 2.6 millions tons. Approximately 229,000 ha of land yielded over 1.58 million tons of fruits, including 982,000 tons of dates. Given the ban on fodder exports, the Kingdoms feed production has been gradually decreasing, although production in 2007 witnessed a slight increase compared to the previous year. Overall, the Ministry of Agriculture is moving to limit fodder production in view of its high consumption of water. In 2007, 151,000 ha of land were used for fodder production leading to a yield of 2.69 million tons that included 1.78 million tons of clover. Production Statistics for 2007
Crops
Grains Vegetables Fruits Fodder Total
Surface (thousands of ha)

85 11 9 151 4701
Source: 2008 Statistical Yearbook
Thousands of tons
769 956 1851 886
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Strategic Context
The Ministry of Agriculture has also dedicated efforts to pastures and forests, important renewable natural resources, with planting of seedlings, construction of dikes, embankments, and levees, and development of nurseries and national parks. The Kingdom has 30 grazing enclosures 200 km long with a surface of 172 km. In addition, Ministry 20,000 kgs of domestic and imported fodder seeds were planted. Furthermore, 4,820 ha of forests were planted. The perimeter of fenced forests was about 97 km in length. Over 791 thousand forest KSA Animal Production in 2007 Animal Production In 2007, the Kingdom produced 279,000 camels, 401 000 cows, 8.01 million sheep, 2.2 million goats, 506 million poultry, and 3.41 billion eggs. Raw milk production reached 1,095 million liters, whereas honey production reached nearly 156 tons. trees were planted in the afforestation sites in addition to plantation in roads and streets landscaping projects and the national parks projects.
Animals
Camel Sheep Goats Cattle Poultry Eggs Fisheries and Fishing Milk Honey Horses
Source: 2008 Statistical Yearbook
Quantity
279,338 8,082,852 2,212,543 101,210 506,268,656 poultry 3,411,557 thousand eggs 81,069 tons 1,095 million liters 155,929 kg 20,507
Fish Production The Kingdom enjoys significant fisheries resources along its coastal line, the longest in the region, stretching over more than 2,500 km along the Red Sea and the Arab Gulf. The Kingdoms total fisheries production in 2007 reached 81,059 metric tons (MTs), with 65,473 MTs (80.8% of total) of sea catches and 15,586 MTs from fish farms (19.2% of total). Sea catches from the Arab Gulf amounted to 42,038 MTs where as those from the Red Sea amounted to 23,435 MTs. Salt water fish farms yielded 12,094 MTs whereas fresh water fish farming yielded 3,492 MTs.
Food Manufacturing Saudi food manufacturing factories produce dairy products, meat products, pastries, oils, confections, biscuits, pasta products, dates and date products and tomato products. The food industry ranks 4th among manufacturing industries with 16% of overall Saudi manufacturing plants, investments totaling SR 55.1 billion (USD 14.7 billion), and an annual growth rate of 6%. The Kingdom lists 588 food manufacturing plants worth nearly SR 20 billion and employing more than 46,000 workers. Its noteworthy that the food and
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Strategic Context
beverages industries have been growing at a steady pace, from a net worth of SR 611 million in 2001, to SR 1.67 billion in 2004. Saudi exports of food reached SR 1.96 billion in 2004. Food imports however grew by 7%. Self Sufficiency The Kingdom is currently self-sufficient in terms of wheat production. It is 75% self sufficient in high corn production, and covers 85% of domestic consumption of vegetable products and 65% of domestic consumption of fruits. Animal production exceeds domestic consumption in eggs and milk, and addresses 50% of domestic consumption of meats.
Percentage of Self-sufficiency
Animal Product
Red Meats Poultry Fish Fresh Milk Eggs Total Meat
% self sufficient
63 55 55 49 117 105
Fruits
Dates Citrus Grapes Other Total
% self sufficient
105 30 84 35 63
Grains
Wheat Barley High Corn Millet Other Total
% self sufficient
100 0 76 40 5 3
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Strategic Context
Vegetables
Potato Tomato Cucumber Watermelon Other Total
% self sufficient
11 70 101 107 79 86
Key National Issues and Challenges

Water security and food security equilibrium The Kingdom has scarce water resources, and a farming sector that consumes nearly 90% of overall annual consumption of water. A growing Saudi population also means growing demand for water and food, and a need to boost food production, thus expanding farming activities and raising water consumption. This poses a serious challenge to the vital water security and food security equilibrium the Kingdom needs to maintain, preserving water resources while maintaining its farming production to support its food security. This critical equilibrium emphasizes the Kingdoms need for strategic technologies and methods to drastically reduce the current depletion of groundwater resources and optimize its water consumption without reducing agricultural production. The Kingdom also seeks to find new sources of water. Regional equilibrium between rural and urban areas The large producers were the main beneficiaries of the Kingdoms policy to subsidize the agricultural sector, whereas small producers were left at a disadvantage. The end result was an uneven subsidization amongst the Kingdoms regions. To remedy this situation, investment opportunities must be created to all individuals in the
agricultural sector, and income levels need to be raised in rural farming areas to provide a social framework that would help contain rural flight. Structuring regional agricultural production and
comparative advantage The extensive production of wheat, fodder and palm trees in the Kingdom has come at the expense of the production of other crops. This trend contradicts the regional comparative advantage principle which distributes crops farming according to the advantage of each region in terms of water and soil abundance and quality. Efficient allocation of resources The Kingdoms efforts to achieve agricultural selfsufficiency have come at a heavy cost of water, land and capital resources. Horizontal expansion of wheat, fodder and palm trees growth has severely depleted groundwater sources, especially non-renewable reservoirs. Furthermore, the horizontal expansion in the distribution of fallow land amongst farmers and agricultural projects without proper regular follow up of land reclamation and maintenance methods has resulted in the deterioration of soil fertility. In addition, the extensive subsidization of barley production came at the expense of more efficient production sectors, not
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Strategic Context
to mention the increased support and loans of imported farming equipment and machinery, inflicting useless excess spending on the government budget. Workforce in the agricultural sector Agricultural marketing The Kingdoms agricultural development was directed to increase agricultural production, yet it lacked effective marketing policies to deliver farm crops to consumers. Furthermore, this development initiative was also flawed with weak cooperative marketing associations and a poor spirit of cooperative work amongst farmers whose products were not being marketed in a manner that protected their rights. Agricultural manufacturing The exponential increase in agricultural production intended to satisfy the growing demand on food goods and achieve self sufficiency in some kinds of crops, was disproportionate to manufacturing of food products. As a result, manufactured food imports grew, causing severe competition with domestic industries. Fodder manufacturing The deterioration of pastures, continuous subsidization of barley, and the shortage of fodder manufacturing have deeply damaged the concept of balanced nutrition, crippling the optimal operation of existing fodder factories and/or weakening investments in fodder manufacturing. Domestic production of animal and fish products for domestic consumption Overfishing recently peaked in the Red Sea and the Arab Gulf with the use of both modern and traditional techniques. Urban and industrial expansion, filling and burial of coral reefs and sea pollution have also resulted in serious reduction of fish stock below acceptable levels. To replenish this deficit, fish farming needs to Technology transfer, implementation and localization Scientific research is constantly evolving and generally focused on developing specific technologies with potential applications for beneficiary sectors. The farming sector is among the top priority sectors as it produces, manufactures and markets food products. Each new technology thus needs to have an economic Agriculture-related information The Kingdom has a lack of integrated and accurate agricultural information, which creates a serious obstacle to agricultural development. The recent developments in computer technologies and agricultural information systems have made it further important to deliver requested information in due time to farmers, engineers, supervisors and public and private officials. KACST thus recently supported the development of a computer system for the water needs of farming crops in the Kingdom. It also supported the design of an integrated computer encyclopedia of green crops farming in the Kingdom to include key green crops farming data (such as diseases, pest epidemics and others, crops storage) with an electronic map of the Kingdoms farming regions. These digital information systems are expected to help develop optimal agricultural methods and transactions for farmers and agricultural companies in the Kingdom. Issues related to the agricultural sector workforce include limited opportunities in the private sector for Saudi workforce, inadequate education and professional development, enduring rural exodus and continuous flow of foreign labor, all of which have resulted in lower wages in the private sector. be developed, especially with the growth of the annual consumption of fish products per capita to 13.8 kg/year.
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Strategic Context
and practical value to facilitate its implementation. The Kingdom has diverse environmental conditions and an arid weather, which means that a thorough feasibility study must be conducted before any technology applied in other countries with different environments, can be transferred to the Kingdom. Applied research leads research activities at KACST and Saudi universities (55% to 80% of overall research activities), yet falls below 20% of all research at the Ministry of Agriculture. It is noteworthy that the Ministrys research centers provide a great part of the miscellaneous services, including analysis of soil, water, fertilizer and plant tissue samples, offering recommendations and consultation, as well as other guiding newsletters and services (50% of the activities of centers affiliated with There are many stakeholders in the Kingdom involved with agricultural services and research. Data was collected during this study from 6 research centers affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture, in addition to university research centers and stations (Special Research station at KSU, and King Faisal University Research Center of Excellence). These centers are essentially dedicated to: basic research, applied research, technology development, technical and scientific services and education and training related to agricultural sciences, as well as other miscellaneous services. the Ministry of Agriculture).
Science and Technology Activity in the Kingdom
100
80
80
60
55 50
40
KACST Universities Ministry of Agriculture
0
10 5 5
0 10 Applied Research 5 10
17.5 13 4 7.5 1 Education and Training 5
0
Basic Research
Tech/Experiment Division
Science & Technology Services
Miscellaneous
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Strategic Context
Agricultural research bodies are essentially interested in: plant production, animal production, plant protection and soil research. This study shows that both the academic sector and KACST seem to address similar topics, while Science and technology activity areas the Ministrys research centers are lacking in activities related to awareness and guidance, irrigation, and food industries.
KACST () Activity exists (-) none
Universities -
Ministry of Agriculture
Sc. Activity
Plant production Animal Plant Protection Soil Awareness & guidance Irrigation Food Industries Others
The study also showed that individuals working for relevant stakeholders were either researchers, technicians or support services specialists. Furthermore, it appears that universities accounted for the greatest number of full-time researchers, technicians and support services specialists, followed by the 6 centers of the Ministry of Agriculture across the Kingdom, and KACST.
50 16 00 0
150
140
100 68
110
50 50 3 1
56
Supporting Services Technicians Researchers
Universities
KACST
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Strategic Context
The study also showed that the academic sector employs the most number of PhD and Masters degree professionals, followed by KACST and the Ministry of Agriculture research centers. Both KACST and the academic sector seem to focus on sabbatical scholarships, while internal and external training represents 39%.
50 0 00 188
150 11 100 94
130
PhD
86
70 40 5 10
KACST
Masters Degree
50 4 6 0
30
18
18
0
Bachelors Degree Diploma Others
Universities
The study indentified the following main challenges facing the agricultural research sector: 1. Lack of strategic planning and shortage of equipment. 2. Lack of external and internal cooperation with centers of excellence. 3. Deficient of funds and inadequate staffing (in every aspect). 9% 30% 31% 27% 3%
Schoolarships Domestic Training External Training Sabbatical Other
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Strategic Context
Key Challenges Identified by
100
Percentage of Stakeholders Identity Challenge
80 60 38% 40% 31% 31% 56% 56%
40 0 0
33%
HR
Funds
Cooperation
Administrative Procedures
Development
Equipment
Strategic Planning
Analysis of Comparable Agricultural R&D Institutes

Agricultural technology research publications are
is the leading agricultural research organization in the world. The USDA has a strong emphasis on plant production and protection research. National research agencies and institutes are significant producers of agricultural research articles worldwide, notably the USDA, the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), the Spanish National Research Council (CSIS), and the Canadian Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food (AAFC).
produced by more than 20,000 research institutions throughout most of the world. A study of research performance measured by number of publications in peer-reviewed journals in 2008 shows that the United Stated Department of Agriculture (USDA) (2,247 articles)
Global Agricultural Technologies R&D Organizations (2008)
Institution
Total
Average Impact
Plant Production and Protection

16 807 340 76
Animal and Dairy

443 186 6 350
Food Sciences and Nutrition

85 70 00 115
Soil and Water Resources Management

90 305 98 86
Economics, Policy, and Interdisciplary Agricultural Studies

153 40 97 60
Fish
USDA
47 1395 98 834
0.43 0.33 0.47 0.49
41 70 1 1
Chinese
Acad Sci INRA Univ Calif Davis
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Strategic Context
Economics, Policy, and Interdisciplary Agricultural Studies
98 51 38 7 3
Institution
Total
Average Impact
Plant Production and Protection

73 196 84 0 80
Animal and Dairy

18 8 161 10 14
Food Sciences and Nutrition

33 154 90 114 100
Soil and Water Resources Management

10 60 94 41 87
Fish
CSIC Univ Fed Sao Paulo China Agr Univ Cornell Univ
Agr & Agri Food Canada
766 75 6 574 574
0.46 0.20 0.33 0.50 0.37
9 3 13 1
Analysis of Publications and Patents in Agricultural Technology

In 2008, there were 82,848 articles published worldwide Figure 3: Publications by Country (2008)
in agricultural technologies research fields. The following figure 3 shows the number of publications produced by selected countries over this time period.
Turkey South K.. Spain 4.026 Taiwan Canada 3.922 Mexico
India 4.057
UK 4.932 USA 19.468 Brazil 5.218 France 3.655
Italy 3.106
Saudi Arabia
Australia 3.384 China 5.925 Japan 5.429 Germany 4.830
Iran
0
Strategic Context
The United States is the largest producer of agricultural technologies articles, by a wide margin, with 19,468 articles - more than 23% of total global output. The Peoples Republic of China was second, producing 5,925 articles followed by Japan and Brazil with 5,429 and 5,218 articles respectively. Saudi Arabia was ranked 71st in article output, producing 77 articles. Plant production and protection research together with animal and dairy research account for the majority of agriculture-related articles(26,826 and 25,919 respectively) followed by food science and nutrition (14,886), soil and water resources management (10,132), economics, policy and interdisciplinary studies (10,132), and fish (3,736). Activity in Saudi Arabia was focused relatively heavily on animal and dairy, accounting for 38% of total KSA publications compared to 31% total for the field in the rest of the world.
Agricultural Research Sub-Topics 2007
Sub-Topic
Plant Production and Protection Animal and Dairy Food Sciences and Nutrition Soil and Water Resources Management
Economics, Policy, and Interdisciplinary Agricultural Studies
World Publications 686 5919 14886 1013 5733 3736
% of World Publications
32% 31% 18% 12% 7% 5%
KSA Publications 17 9 15 14 0 3
% of KSA agricultural research publications
22% 38% 19% 18% 0% 4%
Fish
Globally, the benchmark countries selected by KACST for inclusion in this study account for approximately 55% of agricultural research publications. The relative output levels of the benchmark countries have not changed significantly over the last 10 years, with the exception of the United States, which has dropped from 35% of global output in 1996 to 25% on 2007. Other benchmark countries with notable changes in their level of output include Brazil, which more than doubled its share of global output from 1.26% in 1996 to 3.06% in 2007, Mexico which increased from 0.67% in 1996 to 1.15% in 2007, and Iran which increased from 0.09% in 1996 to 0.84% in 2007. Saudi Arabias share of global output decreased from 0.17% in 1996 to 0.09% in 2007.
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Strategic Context
Figure 4: Share of World Agricultural Technologies Publications (1996-2007)
40%
Share of World Agriculture Technologies Publications
United States Brazil UK Germany India
35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 1996 1997 1998 1999 000 001 00 003 004 005 006 007
Australia Netherlands Mexico Iran New Zealand Pakistan Saudi Arabia
The relative emphasis placed on agricultural research in a given country can be measured by the fields activity ratio. The activity ratio compares the relative level of activity in a specific country to the global level of activity
in a given field.
For example, in 2007, agricultural
technologies publications accounted for 14.8% of all global publication activity. In New Zealand, agricultural technologies accounted for 38.1% of all publication output, yielding an activity ratio of 2.58 (38.1 divided by 14.8). By this measure, agricultural research is strongly
Share of Publication Activity (2007)
emphasized in countries such as New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil and Australia, while countries like Germany and Saudi Arabia show less emphasis in this field. Benchmark Country Publication Impact Average publication impact is calculated as the number of citations of articles from a particular country divided by the total number of articles published by authors from that country. For instance, a country that published 50 articles that were cited 100 times would have an average publication impact of two. Because this analysis is focused on recent publications from 2008, the impact statistics are biased in favor of articles that have immediate, widespread readership in fast-moving fields with rapid rates of publication.
Country
New Zealand Mexico Pakistan Brazil Australia India Netherlands United Kingdom United States Iran Germany Saudi Arabia
Activity Ratio
2.58 2.10 1.91 1.87 1.70 1.52 1.31 1.23 1.22 1.19 0.93 0.71

Strategic Context
In 2008, the Netherlands had the highest average publication impact of all countries at 0.63 followed by the United Kingdom (0.54) and Australia (0.49). The average publication impact for Saudi Arabia was 0.06 with 5 citations of 77 articles. By this measure, the agricultural research articles that are published by authors affiliated with KSA institutions appear to have a lower impact when compared with those from benchmark countries. Highly cited agricultural technologies publications included Effect of various pretreatment methods on anaerobic mixed microflora to enhance biohydrogen production utilizing dairy wastewater as substrate (18 citations) authored in India and History of commercializing sexed semen for cattle (14 citations) authored in the USA and China. KSA-affiliate authors produced 4 articles cited by others, including Splenic rupture and splenectomy in a foal, authored by Stables King Abdullah & Sons in Riyadh. International Collaboration and Publication Impact For countries with a similar level of publication activity, those countries with a high level of international collaboration also tend to produce publications with a high level of impact. In this study, international collaboration is calculated as the average number of countries represented per publication, based on authors addresses. The chart below plots a countrys level of international collaboration (horizontal axis) against the average impact of its publications (vertical axis). The Netherlands and the United Kingdom which show significant international collaborative activity also tend to produce papers with a higher average impact. Countries such as the Brazil and India, on the other hand, are significant producers of agricultural technologies research outputs but show low levels of both international collaborative activity and impact. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia achieves relatively low impact for its level of international collaboration.
Impact of Collaboration and Publication in Agricultural Technologies (2008) 0.80 0.70 0.60
UK
Netherlands
0.50
United States
Australia
Germany
0.40 0.30
Mexico
New Zealand
0.20 0.10 0.00 1.00
Pakistan India Brazil Iran Saudi Arabia
1.20
1.40
1.60
1.80
2.00
2.20
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Strategic Context
Agricultural Research Collaboration Patterns
Scientific research is frequently an international activity. Connections between researchers across the globe can be analyzed as a network; countries with a high level of connectivity in the network serve as centers for collaborative activity and may be well positioned to tap into international knowledge flows. The following Number of Collaborating Countries (2007) table identifies leading centers of global collaborative activity in the agricultural technologies field. The United States is a key player linking researchers together from many nations, but other significant hubs of collaborative activity include the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Australia.
Country
USA UK Germany Netherlands Australia India Mexico Brazil New Zealand Iran Pakistan Saudi Arabia
Number of Collaborator Countries

145 11 11 97 96 73 68 66 6 5 37 3
As shown in the following table, within Saudi Arabia, the institutions generating the largest number of articles related to agricultural technologies are: King Saud University (18), King Faisal University (13), and Al Qasseem University (11). These institutions rank 1426th, 1800th and 1989th in terms of total number of publications among all agricultural research institutions captured in the SCI-E database. These same three institutes are the KSA leaders in both animal & dairy and plant production & protection. King Saud University and King Faisal University are the leading organizations in Food Science and Nutrition. King Fahd University of
Petroleum and Minerals, the Saudi Geologic Survey and the Saline Water Conversion Company are the leading soil & water resources management institutions, while in the fish sub-topic, no KSA institution produced more than a single publication in 2008.
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Strategic Context
KSA R&D Agricultural Technologies Organizations Animal and Dairy 4 7 6 0 1 0 4 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Plant Production and Protection 4 4 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Food Sciences and Nutrition 5 4 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 Soil and Water Resources Management 1 0 0 1 3 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0
Institution
King Saud University King Faisal University Al Qasseem Univ King Abdulaziz University King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals
Fish 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Natl Wildlife Res Ctr Saudi Geologic Survey King Khalid Univ King Khalid Wildlife Res Ctr Saline Water Conversion Corporation United Sugar Co Taif Univ Stables King Abdullah & Sons Saudi Aramco Satellite Plants Jeddah King Abdulaziz Medical City
Natl Commiss Wildlife Conservat Natl Commiss Wildlife Conservat & Dev
Minist Agr EXPEC Res Ctr Jamjoom Pharmaceut Co Ltd Teachers Coll Islam Dev Bank Girls Coll Sci Girls College Biol Pest Control Expert CO UNDP FAO Al Watnia Poultry
5
Strategic Context
Authors affiliated with KSA institutions collaborated with researchers in 23 countries throughout the world. Significant partners included researchers in the United States (8 publications), the UK (6), Egypt (6). Additionally, KSA-affiliated authors collaborated on more than one publication with authors from: Pakistan, China, Spain, UAE, Germany Ireland, Italy, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Yemen, and Qatar. Figure 4 provides an overview of KSA collaboration activity (blue lines), national publication output (country color), and leading research centers (green dots). Several of these leading research centers are summarized below.
KSA Agricultural Technologies Collaboration Activity
Number of Publications
Bottom Quintile (1-467) 4th Quintile (468-1771) 3th Quintile (1772-3655) 2th Quintile (3656-7024) 2th Quintile (7025-19468)
Collaborative Relationships (Line thickness raleitve to number of collaborative publications)
Top 30 Research Institute (measured by publication output)
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Strategic Context
Agricultural Technologies Journals
The table below presents the top journals, by publication count, for agricultural technologies sub-fields in 2008.
Agricultural Technologies Journals by Publication Count (2008) Journal BIORESOURCE TECHNOLOGY Plant Production and Protection PLANT PHYSIOLOGY JOURNAL OF NATURAL PRODUCTS JOURNAL OF ETHNOPHARMACOLOGY PHYTOCHEMISTRY PLANT JOURNAL NEW PHYTOLOGIST EUPHYTICA CROP SCIENCE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY ZOOTAXA VACCINE Animal and Dairy VETERINARY RECORD5 JOURNAL OF DAIRY SCIENCE INDIAN VETERINARY JOURNAL ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR JOURNAL OF ANIMAL SCIENCE VETERINARY PARASITOLOGY POULTRY SCIENCE INDIAN JOURNAL OF ANIMAL SCIENCES JOURNAL OF ANIMAL AND VETERINARY ADVANCES Food Sciences and Nutrition JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD CHEMISTRY FOOD CHEMISTRY FOOD AND CHEMICAL TOXICOLOGY JOURNAL OF DAIRY SCIENCE BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOCHEMISTRY AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NUTRITION OBESITY EUROPEAN FOOD RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FOOD MICROBIOLOGY Publications 1180 490 41 406 355 34 91 69 65 53 1108 873 566 516 477 391 376 351 34 330 330 1646 958 50 516 489 463 40 371 340
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Strategic Context
Journal JOURNAL OF NUTRITION Soil and Water Resources Management WATER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH WATER RESEARCH ENVIRONMENTAL GEOLOGY JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGY HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY REVISTA BRASILEIRA DE CIENCIA DO SOLO WATER AIR AND SOIL POLLUTION Economics, Policy, and Interdisciplary Agricultural Studies GEODERMA JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD CHEMISTRY JOURNAL OF THE SCIENCE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE CIENCIA E AGROTECNOLOGIA INDIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES PESQUISA AGROPECUARIA BRASILEIRA AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT COMPUTERS AND ELECTRONICS IN AGRICULTURE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AMERICAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS SCIENTIA AGRICOLA AQUACULTURE JOURNAL OF FISH BIOLOGY CANADIAN JOURNAL OF FISHERIES AND AQUATIC SCIENCES Fish FISHERIES RESEARCH AQUACULTURE RESEARCH FISHERIES SCIENCE FISH & SHELLFISH IMMUNOLOGY ICES JOURNAL OF MARINE SCIENCE NIPPON SUISAN GAKKAISHI Publications 330 560 497 496 41 401 376 314 85 46 33 1646 340 76 55 40 178 143 110 108 105 43 366 7 15 06 184 173 14 17
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Strategic Context
Agricultural Technologies Patent Activity Between 2006 and 2008, there were 13,931 agriculture related patent applications filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The majority of these (9,515 applications) listed at least one inventor from the United States. Other countries with a significant number of inventors include: Germany (884 applications), Japan (768 applications), and Canada (653 applications). The most cited agriculture related patent applications (6 citations each): Camera system for canines, felines, or other animals and Training guidance system for canines, felines, or other animals both list the same inventor from the United States: Kates, Lawrence. There were two agriculture related patent applications that listed an inventor from Saudi Arabia over this time period. System for delivery of insecticide involved two inventors from Saudi Arabia, while Carbon Neutralization System (CNS) for CO2 Sequestering involved one inventor from Saudi Arabia.
Top Agriculture Related Patent Applications by Country (2006-2008) Food Sciences and Nutrition 58 86 335 146 178 180 118 56 106 61 0
Rank 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5
Country United States Germany Japan Canada United Kingdom Netherlands France Australia Denmark Taiwan Saudi Arabia
Animal and Dairy 1589 60 104 96 76 5 49 8 10 36 0
Soil and Environmental Management 131 1 10 13 3 4 3 0 0
Fish 509 4 49 7 11 3 11 1 13 0
Plant Production and Protection 4704 533 70 371 08 15 00 139 80 85
Total 9515 884 768 653 476 44 374 37 197 197
1 Kates, Lawrence. Camera system for canines, felines, or other animals. Patent US7424867. 2008. 2 Kates, Lawrence. Training guidance system for canines, felines, or other animals. Patent US7434541. 2008. 3 Sheppard, Norman J. Carbon Neutralization System (CNS) for CO2 sequestering. Saudi Arabian Oil Company, assignee. Patent US20070092962A1. 2007. 4 Al-Sulaiman, Faleh A., and Muhammad A. Huwwa. System for delivery of insecticide. Patent US20090007481A1. 2009.
9
Strategic Context
Two inventors are listed on significantly more agriculture related patent applications than any other. Eby, William H. and Weder, Donald E. are listed on 89 and 70 applications, respectively. Other inventors listed on a Top Agriculture Inventors (2006-2008) significant number of applications include: Kovalic, David K. (38 applications), Prakash, Indra (38 applications), and Dubois, Grant E. (37 applications). The top five agriculture inventors are all from the United States.
Inventor
Eby, William H. Weder, Donald E. Kovalic, David K. Prakash, Indra Dubois, Grant E.
Inventor Country
United States of America United States of America United States of America United States of America United States of America
Number of Patent Applications

89 70 38 38 37
While the majority of agriculture related patent applications are defined as individually owned patent applications (7,606 applications) by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, some institutions are designated as the patent assignee on a number of applications. Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. is listed as the patent assignee on 398 agriculture patent Leading Agriculture Assignees (2006-2008) USPTO Assignee* Individually owned patents (no assignee) Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. Monsanto Technology LLC Syngenta Seeds B.V. Sources: US Patent Trademark Office
applications followed by Monsanto Technology LLC (212 applications) and Syngenta Seeds B.V. (114 applications). One of the two patent applications with an inventor from Saudi Arabia lists Saudi Arabian Oil Company as the patent assignee. The other is an individually owned patent.
Number of Patent Applications 7606 398 1 114
of the depletion of significant resources worldwide for
Global Trends in Agricultural R&D

Trends in Sustainable Agriculture Sustainable agriculture has been the subject of growing interest over the last two decades, especially in light
harvesting purposes, and extensive farming which heavily relies on water resources, fertilizers, pesticides and other elements with adverse effects on the ecosystem health. Sustainable agricultural systems thus aim to develop cost-effective production techniques to harvest healthy
30
Strategic Context
foods with limited adverse impact on water resources and soil properties. Examples of this trend include: Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) & organic farming techniques. Precision agriculture techniques. Development of detection and treatment technologies for environmental pollutants. Development of renewable energy technologies (solar, wind, etc.) to limit consumption of water and energy. Efficient use of agricultural and industrial residues. Anti- desertification research. Role of farming in economic, social and rural development. Soil properties treatment technologies, as well as salt, pollutant, heavy minerals and pathogens resistant technologies to protect soil and groundwater. Focus on research to optimize highly efficient productivity with minimal impact on soil, environment and least consumption of fuels. Comparative advantages in water resources, soil properties and environmental conditions Trends in Water Resources Conservation and Water Security Crops and fodder harvesting require heavy consumption of water. Research has therefore been conducted to find techniques that require efficient irrigation, such as: Study water farming needs and crops productivity under environmentally straining conditions. Non-traditional food and fodder farming, such as fish harvesting from coastal fisheries, and fodder production from algae plants irrigated with sea water. Farming techniques designed to enhance the efficient consumption of water and energy with soilless culture and hydroponic technologies. Create integrated databases on soil, water, harvest and the environment to program and enhance effective Biotechnology Trends Biotechnology and genetic engineering research studies and technologies have lately tackled various agricultural and food security issues, including: Environmentally resistant plant and animal breeds, with enhanced resistance to salinity, drought or thermal conditions, or highly resistant to weeds, insects and lesions. Farming Automation and Mechanization Trends The progress of science and computer systems has been paralleled with tremendous progress in farming operations (soil conditioning, crops storage, etc.). Due to the growing demand on food, research has been increasingly focused on the development of automation and mechanization systems, such as: Agricultural data and statistics precision and availability on the World Wide Web, and systems enhancing speed and precision of information access due to its importance to agricultural policies. R&D of farming equipment design and operation to fit different regions, crops kinks and animals. Automation technologies and mechanization systems development and their applications in agricultural operations. Support of greenhouse modern production technologies, including thermal, humidity and lighting automated control technologies. irrigation techniques. Irrigation control of extreme thermal properties impact on farming crops. Development of use of non-traditional water resources, such as municipal and agricultural wastewater treatment. Support food security studies and its relation to water security.
31
Strategic Context
Allopathy. Knowledge-based bio-economy research. Genetic enhancement of domestic animal breeds to adapt them to environmental conditions. Identification of genes responsible for undesirable genetic traits. Agricultural nanotechnology. Animal health research. Biosafety and germplasm conservation studies. Development of food manufacturing techniques with increased efficiency and lower costs, ensuring food security for longer periods of time with conservation and packaging techniques. Quarantine research support to enhance early detection of any potential contamination with future influx to the Kingdom. Farming product quality research. The rationalization of water consumption policy resulted in limiting areas of fodder farming in the Kingdom, which created a shortage in animal production fodder. Thus, there needs to be a policy to limit the shortage of fodder The strategic agricultural R&D process for the Kingdom revealed the key needs of this sector in light of the Kingdoms economic, social and environmental needs. The rationalization of water consumption is at the top of those priorities given the scarcity of the Kingdoms resources. This implies optimizing the use of water, and supporting technologies to limit water consumption as well as looking for new renewable water sources. From the point of view of economics of agriculture, the Kingdoms farming sector has high investment costs and suboptimal demand ensuing from ineffective marketing. Consequently, a comprehensive marketing strategy needs to be developed to ensure improved related regulations including market-based pricing, regulatory and technology policy. A marketing database needs to be developed to serve stakeholders. Furthermore, The Kingdoms key R&D needs in the agricultural sector were identified as follows: Contribute to food security while preserving water security. Transfer, localization and development of agricultural technologies to help support a knowledge-based economy. Employ agricultural R&D outputs to help achieve sustainable agricultural growth. Development of national R&D capacity to serve the Kingdoms farming sector. resources, such as increasing the fodder nutritional value and saving pastures from decline. In addition, the shortage of fish production requires supporting fish farms as well as the traditional and industrial fishing sector. Rural flight to urban centers with employment and investment opportunities is another aspect of the economic context of the Saudi farming sector. Agricultural investment opportunities thus need to be created in rural areas to serve small local investors, as they are essential to rural communities. From a geographic point of view the significant size of the Kingdom and the diversity of its environment emphasize the need to use regional comparative advantages, which require adjusting the allocation of crops farming to serve each region. agricultural manufacturing investments need to be supported to remedy situations where increases in farming are not matched with similar growth in manufactured food products.
Kingdoms Agricultural R&D Needs
3
Strategic Context
Preservation and development of agricultural water resources. Apply comparative advantage principle to some of the Kingdoms regions. Maintain balance between rural and urban development. Databases. Weaknesses Insufficient staff and inadequate training in the agricultural sector Weak links between R&D technology sectors and parties benefiting from research outputs Poor R&D technology outputs in the Kingdom Need for additional support for modern R&D activities infrastructure Poor coordination and cooperation among the Kingdoms research sectors Insufficient effective international cooperation on This section presents a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis of the Saudi Arabia Agriculture Research and Innovation Program relative to achieving its vision. In a SWOT analysis, strengths and weaknesses are internal to the organization while opportunities and threats are defined as external to the organization. For the purpose of this analysis, the organization is the Saudi Agricultural Technology Program, including KACST, universities, Ministry of Agriculture and companies. Strengths Availability of funding for R&D activities Significant part of infrastructure available to support R&D activities in this sector Availability of trained and qualified R&D staff Research sectors (universities, KACST) interest in modern technologies, such as nanotechnology and biotechnology, which promise to lead to new R&D horizons in agriculture Access to advanced agricultural technologies in the private sector A long term R&D strategy for the Kingdom Threats / Challenges Scarcity of water resources and maintaining the delicate balance between agriculture and the conservation of water reserves Insufficient awareness of R&D beneficiary sectors of the importance of research support, funding and adoption Low economic returns of agriculture (compared to industry and commerce for example) Competition with imported products Rural exodus Harsh environmental conditions (drought and extreme temperatures) Opportunities Comparative advantage principle Geographic and environmental diversity in the Kingdom Significant investments (private and public) in agriculture Existing opportunities in international agreements Need to diversify sources of national economy Government interest in achieving food security technology transfer
SWOT Analysis for KSA Agricultural Research and Innovation
33
Higher Strategy
This section provides the vision, mission, and strategic priorities for the Kingdoms Agricultural Technologies Program.
Vision
The vision for the Agricultural Technology Program is leadership in sustainable agricultural development.
Mission
The mission of the KSA Agricultural Technology Program is to transfer, localize and develop agricultural technologies, and to conserve and grow natural resources for the benefit of Saudi Arabia.
Program Values and Culture

To achieve excellence and carry out its mission, the program will develop an internal culture through both the sponsorship of its leadership and commitment of its operational teams, based on the following values: Spirit of team work Creativity and innovation Excellence Competency Loyalty and transparency Moderation Dialogue Partnership
34
Higher Strategy
The following direct, program-level strategic goals of the Agricultural Technology Program are aligned with broader goals of economic development, self-reliance, security and sustainable growth set forth by the National Policy for Science and Technology. Furthermore, these strategic goals provide a basis for defining technology area selection criteria and program implementation objectives. Transfer, localization and development of competitive and environmentally safe agricultural technologies intended to promote the Kingdoms sustainable growth and biosafety. Development of human knowledge of urgent agricultural issues and related technology. Development of a competitive R&D infrastructure for KSA agricultural technologies. Creation of a competitive environment for an agricultural technologies industry to compete in global markets. Steering modern technology applications and research to support vertical farming.
35
Technology Areas
Selection Process An initial list of important Extensive inputs from stakeholders shaped the final list of priority areas, subareas and technologies. technology areas in the field of agriculture was developed by the strategy development team taking into account the programs strategic goals and the higher strategy. The initial list was narrowed down using a set of selection criteria developed through stakeholders workshops.
Selected Technology Areas The following three areas and the subareas underneath those represent the core components of the agriculture sector value chain. An expanded list of related sub-paths and priority technologies needed are presented in the following table. Production
-
Plant Production Animal Production Aquaculture Food Non-food Aquaculture Pastures and Forests Genetic Origins
Manufacturing
-
Natural Resources
-
36
Technology Areas
Core area
Technologies Irrigation scheduling technologies Water harvesting techniques Irrigation systems enhancement technologies Irrigation water salinity treatment Water-use efficiency techniques in crop production Hydroponic techniques Sewage water treatment and use techniques Agricultural drainage water utilization techniques Development of water resources
Production increase and enhancement Dates production increase and enhancement technologies Post-harvesting technologies Genetic enhancement Greenhouse technologies Agricultural mechanization technologies Best agricultural management practices technologies Agricultural clean technologies Fodder production enhancement technologies Organic agriculture technologies Plant environmental control technologies Soil free agricultural technologies Precision agriculture technology Land reclamation Soil salinity treatment technologies Soil survey and classification Fertilizers and enhancers development technologies
Sub-paths
Paths
Sub-areas
Irrigation water sources Drainage and irrigation systems Water quality Water relations Irrigation management Irrigation water
Plant production
Field crops Fruit crops Green crops Fodder crops Nontraditional crops Crops
Soil properties Soil fertility Soil degradation
Soil
37
Technology Areas
Core area
Technologies Chemical control techniques Bio-control techniques Plant epidemics control techniques Detection and diagnosis techniques Integrated control techniques Plant quarantine Control mechanisms technology Red Palm Weevil control techniques
Nutrition requirements technique Genetic enhancement techniques Milking equipment technology development Abattoir machines technology development Stockyards technology Production increase and enhancement technologies Pollutants emission control technologies Stockyard environmental control technologies
Sub-paths
Paths
Sub-areas
Microbial diseases Pets Control techniques
Plant health
Camel Goat Lamb Cattle Other Animals/ Farm Animals
Air quality control in poultry stockyard Pollutants emission control technologies Nutritional needs Genetic enhancement technologies Environmental control technologies Stockyard design and development techniques Breeding techniques Production increase and enhancement technologies Disease detection and diagnosis technologies Quarries development techniques Biosafety technologies Zoonosis control technologies Trans-boundary disease control
Female poultry Poultry meat Poultry egg Ostrich Other Poultry

Animal Production
Disease prevention and control Immune system response enhancement Zoonosis Effect of hormone and doses use
Animal and poultry health
Animal Production
38
Technology Areas
Core area
Technologies Fishing systems development Closed water system Integrated fish farming technologies Floating cages and enclosure agriculture Production increase and enhancement Genetic enhancement techniques Aquaculture proliferation techniques Live food production techniques Detection, diagnosis and treatment techniques Aquaculture Immune system enhancement techniques Aquaculture environmental enhancement techniques Manufacturing technologies Conservation technologies Nanotechnologies Irradiation technologies Dates and palm trees Food safety testing and detection techniques (chemical, microbial, biological, irradiation) Hormones and antibiotics detection techniques Pesticides residues detection techniques
Sub-paths
Paths
Sub-areas
Freshwater fish farming Sea fish farming Crustaceans farming Mollusks farming Algae, and herbs farming Farming
Aqua culture
Microbiological Environmental Nutritional Genetic Aquaculture health

Aqua culture
Manufacturing Conservation Transportation, storage and handling
Plant sources Animal sources Bio-sources Water Food
Raw food products Manufactured food products Food additives safety Food safety Food
39
Technology Areas
Core area
Manufacturing
Technologies
Nutritional value enhancement techniques Fodder manufacturing techniques Traditional fodder alternative technologies Non traditional product Recycling technologies Biological reactions (fermentation) Manufacturing technologies Product conservation technologies Dates and palm residues recycling technologies Information systems Farming technologies Bio-analysis environmental technologies Environmental pollution assessment techniques Pastures survey and environmental evaluation techniques Rehabilitation techniques Use of forests and pastures byproducts Plants disposal technologies Spatial information technologies Timber residues manufacturing technologies Forest trees enhancement technologies Rain harvesting technologies (forest areas) Forest fires control technologies
Sub-paths
Paths
Sub-areas
Non traditional fodder Fodder additives
Fodder
Food
Manufacturing Recycling
Animal sources Bio-sources Water Residues
Non Food
Pastures and forests survey Protection and sustainable development Long term productivity Pastures and forests development Pastures and forests assessment Natural resources economics Environmental interpretations Windbreaks, shelterbelts and sand dune fixation Environmental changes Invasive plants Grazing animal feeding (wild and domesticated)
Environment Management Treatment and enhancement Pastures and forests
Collection and identification technologies Propagation technologies Conservation Genetics Conservation informatics Exchange technologies
Collection and identification Propagation Conservation Exchange Plant Animal Aquaculture Microbiology Genetic origins
40
Natural Resources
Natural Resources
Manufacturing
technologies
Plant sources
Appendix A: Stakeholders & Strategy Participants

Strategy Participants
The plan received extensive input, review, and comment from the stakeholder participants through numerous strategy workshops. The following tables list the participants and contributors to this national effort.
Study Team Members
Name
KACST KACST KACST KACST KSU Ministry of Agriculture KACST KACST Team president Member Member Member Member Member Team director Team secretary
Name
Dr. Hassan bin Yayah Al-Aad Dr. Ahmad bin Hamdi Alharbi Dr. Ali bin Abdullah Al Jalaud Dr. Ibrahim bin Mohammad Al Rekei Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulrahman Al Sadun Dr. Abdulrahman bin Sulaiman Al Habib Dr. Abdullah bin Adulmuhksin Al Rajhi Mr. Mohammad bin Sayed Al Gamdi
Appendix A: Stakeholders & Strategy Participants

Participating Experts
Organization
KACST KSU King Faisal University KSU KSU
Name
Mr. Abdullah bin Sultan Al Khalid Dr. Ibrahim bin Mohammad Areef Dr. Ahmad bin Mohammad Al Jaber Dr. Abdullaziz bin Mohammad Al Sayed Dr. Mansour bin Saad Al Khuraidiz
Stakeholders Representatives
Organization
National Commission for wildlife Conservation and Development (NCWCD) Ministry of Agriculture Saudi Food and Drug Authority KSU Ministry of Water and Electricity KSU Ministry of Water and Electricity
Name
Mr. Tarek bin Mohammad Amin Al Abbas Dr. Abdullah bin Ali Al Hindi Dr. Ibrahim bin Abdulrahman Al Shadi Dr. Abdullaziz bin Rabih Al Harbi Dr. Mohammad bin Ibrahim AlSaud Dr. Yusuf bin Mohammad Al Yusuf Engr. Sayed bin Ali Al Diyer
4
www.kacst.edu.sa
www.mep.gov.sa
DAKKIN 01 478 8584
Building and Construction Water Medical & Health ECP Nanotechnology
Environment
Information Technology
Petrochemicals
Biotechnology
Energy
Agricultural
Building and Construction Technology Strategic Priorities for Advanced Medical and Health Research
Strategic Priorities for Building and Construction Technology
Contents
Executive Summary Introduction Background Scope and Plan Development Process Strategic Context Current State of KSAs Building and Construction Sector Saudi Arabias Current Position in Scientific Research Key Research Performing Organizations Key National Needs Stakeholders Roles Analysis of Regional and International Universities and Research Institutes International Trends in Building and Construction Technologies Benchmarking of Research Performance SWOT Analysis Higher Strategy Vision Mission Strategic Goals
4 7 7 9 10 10 15 16 17 18 18 1 4 8 30 30 30 31
Contents
Technology Areas Main Research and Development Programs Technology Selection Criteria Priority Project Areas Implementation Structure Structure and Strategic Connection Performance Indicators Technical Indicators Action Plan Appendix A: Stakeholders Stakeholders and their Activities Stakeholders Representatives and Plan Participants Appendix B: Research Focus of Local Universities & Research Institutes 32 3 34 34 35 35 35 37 38 40 40 43 44
Executive Summary
The National Policy for Science and Technology, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in 1423 H (2002 G), defined programs for localization and development of strategic technologies that are essential for the Kingdoms future development. The King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) was given responsibility for developing 5-year strategic and implementation plans for each of these 11 technology programs,
in addition to the Building & Construction Technology. KACST also facilitated strategic planning in key applied technology areas that draw upon fundamental technologies and impact human lives. The building and construction (B&C) sector in the Kingdom has undergone remarkable change in the last few decades. Reinforced concrete (RC) frame structures, combined with modern architecture, have replaced traditional mud and stone-based constructions. Steady economic development has resulted in a vibrant and expanding building and construction industry that uses the countrys large reserves of natural resources to produces a wide range of high quality building materials including cement, concrete, bricks, tiles, reinforce steel, ceramics, composite materials and glass. The sector not only generates significant domestic value-add and employment opportunities, it even contributes to export revenues. At the same time, the sector suffers from many weaknesses. For example, the use of energy-intense manufacturing processes, the lack of advanced know-how, lack of commitment to research have hindered the sectors development. Despite the introduction of a range of new technologies, the countrys building systems still depend mostly on old methods using reinforced concrete structures. Notwithstanding the recent expansion of markets and profits, many Saudi companies conduct little research and innovation.
Executive Summary
Collaboration among research organizations in the Kingdom is relatively weak and university-industry-government linkages are also not well developed. Given these and other challenges, it is a national imperative for the Kingdom to draw appropriate technology road maps and strategies for the B&C sector. Realizing the impending need to address important challenges facing the sector, KACST collaborated with the sectors stakeholders to develop a National Building and Construction Technology Strategy for the Kingdom. This document embodies the product of that stakeholder-driven strategic planning endeavor. This plan is based on input from the users and stakeholders of B&C technologies in the Kingdom, including government agencies, universities and industry. It was developed in three main stages. The first stage involved the identification of key stakeholders and a review of the present status of the building and construction sector. The second stage focused on key needs of the sector, assessment of emerging trends, benchmarking of research performance and a detailed analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT). In the third stage, stakeholders collectively determined the vision, mission, strategic objectives, and priority technologies. A program management structure and an implementation plan for the national B&C technology strategy were developed.
Executive Summary
Stakeholders identified the following research and development programs in order to fulfill the strategic objectives and the Kingdoms needs in the B&C sector: 1. Safety. 2. Health. 3. Energy. 4. Environment. 5. New Trends. Initiatives in these program areas must be aligned with one or more of the following main technology themes: 1. Building and Construction Materials. 2. Building and Construction Systems. 3. Building Design, and Quality Assurance. 4. Building Assembly. For the first five years (1429-1434), the following set of priority project areas have been selected under each of the R&D programs: Safety: 1. Durable and serviceable structural systems (design, construction and maintenance). 2. Fire proofing materials and systems. 3. Smart and advanced electro-mechanical materials and systems. Health: 1. Moisture and damping insulation. 2. Sound proofing. 3. Advanced materials and systems for floors and walls. 4. Smart windows and openings systems. Energy: 1. Solar. 2. Heat insulation. 3. Buildings envelop orientation. A B&C Advisory Committee will be established, with stakeholder membership, to oversee the implementation of the plan. The Committee will report to the National Strategic Technologies Committee, which oversees all of the strategic technology programs. To facilitate the implementation of the B&CT strategic plan, a National Building and Construction Technologies Center (NBCTC) will be established at KACST. The NBCTC will take responsibility for the overall management of the plan and for the coordination and evaluation of program components at the national level. New trends: 1. Low cost structural systems (design, construction and maintenance). 2. Fiber composite materials (polymer, plastic, glass, carbon, etc.). 3. Smart (concrete, masonry and composite) materials and systems. 4. Advanced ceramics and alloyed materials and systems. Environment: 1. Water conservation. 2. Construction/ demolition waste reusing and recycling. 3. Environmental friendly Synthesis materials development.
Introduction
Background
The King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) was directed by its charter of 1986 to propose a national policy for the development of science and technology and to devise the strategies and plans necessary to implement them.
In accordance with this charter, KACST launched a comprehensive effort in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy and Planning (MEP), to develop a long-term national policy on science and technology. In July 2002, the Council of Ministers approved the national policy for science and technology, titled as The Comprehensive, Long-Term, National Science and Technology Policy. KACST and MEP embarked on a national effort in collaboration with stakeholders to develop the national plan for science, technology and innovation (STI), which drew up the broad lines and future direction of science, technology and innovation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), considering the role of KACST as well as that of universities, government, industry, and society at large. The plan encompasses eight major programs, as depicted in Figure 1: 1. Strategic and advanced technologies 2. Scientific research and technical development capabilities 3. Transfer, development, and localization of technology 4. Science, technology, and society 5. Scientific and technical human resources 6. Diversifying financial support resources 7. Science, technology, and innovation system 8. Institutional structures for science, technology, and innovation
Introduction
Tran Devel sfer, opme nt, and d Local c an an izat Sc ntifi Techn ion of Res ientifi Scie al Hum ology ea c c ni s Tec rch a Tech esource De hnic nd R v a Society Cap elopm l abi ent litie ng rt s fyi ppo rsi Su Sc Private Sector s ve an Tech ien Di cial urce c d an so In nolo e, no g Fin Re Sy Research & ste vat y, m ion Educational Institutes
Strategic and Advanced Technologies
Ins t Str itutio for uctu nal Te ch Scie res n Inn olog nce, ov y, a ati on nd
Ministries and Governmental Institutes National Science, Technology, & Innovation Plan (NSTIP)
, ce , ien gy Sc nolo ety ch ci Te d So an
In the strategic and advanced technologies, KACST is responsible for developing a 20 years (divided into 5 years operational plans) national strategic plan for the transfer, development and localization of 11 technologies with main stakeholder collaboration. In addition, KACST facilitates strategic planning in key applied technology areas that draw upon fundamental technologies and impact human lives.
In keeping with this responsibility, KACST collaborated with relevant stakeholders to develop a technology strategy for the building and construction (B&C) sector of the Kingdom. This document embodies the product of that stakeholder-driven strategic planning endeavor.
Introduction
Scope and Plan Development Process
The scope of this strategic plan is national: it is a plan for research and innovation in the building and construction sector of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The plan involves and affects independent research organizations, universities, industry, KACST and other government organizations related to the sector. The plan establishes a mission, vision, objectives, identifies stakeholders and users, and determines the highest priority technical areas for the Kingdom. In alignment with the 20-year National Policy for Science and Technology, the plans time frame covers 20 years, divided into 5-year operational phases. The development of this strategic plan comprised the following logical steps: Identification of stakeholders and their representatives. Assessment of the present status of building and construction related technologies in KSA. Assessment of the size and capacity of building and construction industry in KSA including the demand on buildings, manpower and technologies. Identification and prioritization of R&D programs and key technology areas needed to address the Kingdoms needs in the B&C sector. Review of the size and capacity of global building and construction industry. Review of research performance including an analysis of KSA universities and research institutes, publications and patents, and an assessment of international research institutes. Identification of emerging technologies and other trends in the building and construction sector. Development of a mission, a vision and strategic objectives for the Kingdoms building and construction technology strategic plan; and Identification of regional and international partners.
Strategic Context
Current State of KSAs Building and Construction Sector
Building Systems Building systems in the Kingdom have undergone remarkable change in the last few decades. Prior to the oil revolution, buildings were marked by load-bearing walls made of mud or stones, and roofs made of wooden beams and sheets. Use of local material and local building skills and knowledge gave distinct characters to buildings in each region of the country.
With the discovery of oil and development and import of new construction materials and techniques like concrete, the locally built, distinctive character of buildings gave way to uniformity in style and characteristics throughout the Kingdom. For example, reinforced concrete (RC) frame structures are currently the most prevailing structures in residential complexes and infrastructure projects, whereas steel-frame systems are more common for industrial structures, warehouses and a few other public and commercial buildings. In fact, reinforced concrete is the most common structural system used in the world. Approximately ten billion cubic meters of concrete are made each year, amounting to more than one cubic meter for every person on earth. There are various types of structural systems categorized under concrete structures including cast-in-place, pre-cast, pre-tensioned and post-tensioned systems. Load-bearing system is one of the earliest forms of construction. There are many different types of load-bearing systems, including RC cast-in-place, RC pre-cast, reinforced masonry system, un-reinforced masonry system, and combined system. Bending structures such as plate girders and truss systems originally developed for bridges are currently used in long-span buildings and skyscrapers. Steel is a major material for these structures. There are different
10
Strategic Context
types of steel forming systems, such as pre-fabricated systems and in-place fabricated systems. Despite the introduction of a range of new technologies such as the earthquake resistant monolite, the light-weight, load-bearing siporex and the insulated concrete form (ICF) systems, the construction industry has been a slow adopter of these innovations. Building systems still depend mostly on traditional methods using reinforced concrete structures. Building Materials Saudi Arabia has a vibrant and steadily expanding building materials industry that uses the countrys large reserves of natural resources to produces high quality materials including cement, concrete, bricks, tiles, reinforce steel, ceramics, composite materials and glass. High quality and competitive pricing by local producers has led to a reduction in import of building materials, including iron ore and other solid raw materials, from 26% to 21.1% of the total imports in recent years. Data from industrial census indicates that there were 533 factories producing building materials in the Kingdom in 2004. As shown in the following table, these factories had a total investment of over SR 22 billion, led by the cement subsector. While the large capital requirement of this subsector has led the Saudi government to play a bigger role in its development, the cement sector generates significant export revenue. Factories producing building materials employed over 42 thousands people, most being non-Saudi nationals. Table 1: Factories and labor force by building materials segment Description Mosaic and pavement tiles Stones, marbles and granite Cement Gypsum products manufacturing Precast concrete panels, posts etc. Fiberglass, Rockwall and glass Clay, sand & cement bricks, and curbs Total Factory (No.) 59 90 9 1 67 63 33 533 Labor Force (People) 3350 70 7666 1058 6860 53 11103 42561 Investment Value (Million $) 521.13 1106.51 14258.45 431.74 1417.62 1780.2 3069.73 22585.38
11
Strategic Context
The total yearly production of Saudi factories increased from 22 million tons of clinker and 24 million tons of cement in 2003 to more than 27 million tons of clinker and 30 million tons of cement in 2007. In four years, clinker production increased by 22% whereas cement production went up by 25%. Cement export from Saudi Arabia increased from 2.2 million tons in 2006 to 3.5 million tons by the end of 2007. On the other hand, export of clinker decreased by 51 % in 2007. Portland cement concrete leads all construction materials used in the Kingdom. Economic and widespread availability of its constituents; and its versatility and adaptability to different construction environments are key factors behind its high degree of use. However, extensive use of concrete points to the fact that most problems in construction are related to concrete including low energy performance of concrete, deteriorations and other problems warranting costly repair, and wastage of construction material. While concrete is also used in producing bricks, blocks and tiles for structural and non-structural construction, clay bricks and blocks are produced using clay as main raw material. Their quality, combined with high strength and low heat transfer properties, drives the use of clay bricks and blocks in buildings requiring insulated walls. Ceramic tiles and glass sheets, also used extensively in the Kingdom, are manufactured in the country using limestone, silica, sand, feldspar and dolomite from Saudi sources. Steel, aluminum and other alloys are also used as structural or architectural materials. Steel is used as hot- or coldrolled bars, galvanized bars, pipes and tubes steel whereas aluminum sheets and frames are extensively used. Saudi Iron and Steel Company (Hadeed), the only local producer, produces about 4 million tons of steel per year. The construction sector in general and the building materials segment in particular, suffers from the lack of advanced know-how, use of energy-intense manufacturing processes, lack of commitment to research, and disregard to improvement of material properties to meet Saudi Arabian Standards Organization (SASO) standards. Some technologies in use have high maintenance cost and others involve semi-automated and manual production systems that require skilled or semi-skilled labors. Fiber reinforced polymers (FRP), a composite material with superior engineering properties such as strength to weight ratio, corrosion resistance and high fatigue strength, has gained attention in the field of structural engineering. Available in three forms, namely, rods, flexible sheet and rigid laminate (pre-cured), FRPs are categorized as Aramid Fiber Reinforced Polymers (AFRP), Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymers (GFRP), and Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) based on the type of reinforcement used. CFRP is the most commonly used form in the construction industry given its superior properties over the other two. However, since FRPs are relatively new materials, their use in Saudi Arabia is limited to special applications of strengthening and repair of concrete bridges and other infrastructural components. Need for higher skills, lack of awareness among builders and engineers and, to some degree, higher costs over alternatives such as steel, limit the use of FRPs. Relatively new materials in use include petrochemicalsbased products such as the PVC pipes, panels, doors and windows, plastic sockets and breakers etc. as well as several insulating materials including rock wool, and polyethylene and polystyrene sheets produced from local raw materials in relatively simple manufacturing processes.
1
Strategic Context
Size of the Construction Sector The Kingdoms population is estimated to be approximately 27 million, and growing at an annual rate of 2.9%. Such high rate of growth, coupled with the fact that nearly 70% of the population is under 30 years of age, implies a growing demand on residential and commercial buildings. Rapidly increasing demand for housing is one of the governments primary concerns. During the Seventh Development Plan period 20002004, the number of housing units completed or under construction topped 300,000 of which about 240,000 units were financed and implemented by the private sector, and the remaining by the Real Estates Development Fund (REDF). In addition, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs (MOMRA) issued about 150,000 building permits for construction of private and investment housing units. REDF could not meet a total of 270,000 requests up to the end of year 2004. The highest unmet demand for housing units is seen in Makkah, followed by Riyadh and Assir. Between 2005 Table 2: Unsatisfied housing demand by region
Region Riyadh Makkah Al-Madina Qassim East Region Assir Tabuk Hail Northern Borders Jizan Najran Baha Jouf Unsatisfied Demand (%) 18.2 18.4 33.9 32.4 16.4 47.8 40.7 51.4 48.5 46.2 47.1 33.3 41.7 Unsatisfied Demand (thousands) 40 44 0 1 7 3 1 19 8 30 8 8 10
and 2009, the cumulative demand for housing units has exceeded one million and it is estimated that over the next 15 years, Saudi Arabia will require double the number of housing units available currently. Data indicates that spending on construction of the residential units increased by approximately 5%, from SR 78 billion in 2006 to SR 82 billion in 2007, and may further increase to SR 112.125 billion by 2016. Spending on non-residential construction increased by 8% from SR 42 billion in 2006 to SR 46 billion in 2007, given the governments focused promotion of foreign investment opportunities and removal of the minimum capital investment rule for foreign investors. Spending on nonresidential construction is expected to grow further to SR 73 billion in 2016. Infrastructure spending, which increased from SR 82.5 billion in 2006 to SR 90 billion in 2007, is expected to grow to SR 171 billion in 2016 backed by the governments privatization initiatives.
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Strategic Context
Despite the growth in demand, the construction sector in the Kingdom faces several difficulties. The most critical ones include the absence of advanced standards, specifications, construction equipment and materials, lack of enabling financing systems, scarcity of Saudi professionals, skilled and non-skilled workers, and the general lack of incentives to use latest technology and non-conventional building materials. Firms in Construction In keeping with the increase in construction-related spending, the number of registered contactors increased from 3,690 in 2002 to a total of 9,448 in 2007, representing 27.7% of the total registered companies in the country that year. Most of the classified contractors are concentrated in Riyadh, Eastern province and Makkah region, constituting 54.5%, 16% and 13% respectively of the total registered contractors in the country. The following chart presents the distribution of construction contractors by region. Figure 2: Construction contractors by region Large contractors are limited in numbers compared to their medium and small counterparts in Saudi Arabia. Only 216 large contractors, classified as degree (1), were registered in the country and located in four regions. Small contractors classified as degree (4) and degree (5) and totaling 7,964, represent the majority (84%) of the total number of contractors operating the construction sector. Inadequate access to financial resources, in conjunction with bureaucratic financing systems, impedes the quality of work and productivity of most small and mediumsized construction firms. These firms, perceived to have higher risk than large firms, find it hard to receive timely finance from commercial banks. Developing the financial structure through introduction of standard evaluation criteria, and adoption of mandatory licensing for all contractors on the basis of specific qualification and objective performance criteria will improve the overall growth prospects for the construction sector.
6000
Total Construction Contractors
5154 5000 4000 3000 000 1000

Makkah Riyadh
13 39
Al-Madina
1516 391
Qassim East Region
361
Assir
3
Tabouk
154
Hail
50
Northern Border
69
Jizzan
139
Najran
67
Baha
53
Jouf
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Strategic Context
Despite the evolution of the national economic structure, the unprecedented construction boom of recent times has led to the reemergence of the problems and challenges seen in the construction sector during the previous boom era of the 70s and 80s. These challenges may be summarized as: 1. Weak capabilities and low capacities of local contractors. 2. Scarcity and increasing cost of manpower. 3. Shortage of construction and building materials and consequent inflation of material prices. 4. Slow construction process. 5. Higher cost of construction. is stronger than that of many countries in the Middle East region but is far behind others, such as Egypt, Israel and Turkey. The contrast with Turkey is especially illustrative. Turkeys scientific output was comparable to that of Saudi Arabia in 1988, but it has grown rapidly as Turkey has become better integrated with Europe. Turkeys growth was a result of concerted policies that increased R&D as a percent of gross domestic product (GDP) from 0.32 percent in 1990 to 0.67 percent in 2002. Saudi Arabias publications exceed those of Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Algeria, Oman, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates. As with other countries, Saudi Arabia-based scientists and engineers increasingly collaborate with colleagues in other countries. By 2006, around 50 percent of articles were internationally coauthored. KSAbased scientists and engineers collaborates the most with their counterparts in the United States, Egypt, and United Kingdom. Science and engineering publications are concentrated in a small number of institutions in Saudi Arabia. Patents are a measure of inventive output how much new technology, as opposed to new knowledge measured by publications that a country or organization produces. For this indicator, SRI examined patents in the Scientific publications are commonly used as an indicator of scientific output. The number of papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals is considered to be an indicator of overall production of new knowledge. The number of times papers are cited by other scientific papers provides a measure of the impact of the paper. The number of patents produced provides an indicator of new technology developed. The Kingdoms science and engineering output, as measured by publications, has been relatively flat over the last 20 years. Its performance in science and technology As indicated in U.S. patents from 1976 to 2006 in the USPTO database, Saudi Arabia has more patents (374 patents) than many countries in the region, but it lags far behind India (3867 patents) and Singapore (4985 patents). It is interesting that Saudi Arabia patents are U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database. Although this is an incomplete measure as it does not capture all patents filed in all patent offices, it provides a good measure of significant inventions, because generally all internationally significant inventions file for U.S. patents.
Saudi Arabias Current Position in Scientific Research

Most recently, SRI International (2007) assessed KSAs current position in science and technology through a combination of literature reviews, interviews, and bibliometric analyses. While a specific assessment for building and construction technology fields was not conducted, the overall assessment of Saudi Arabias scientific performance was instructive for this planning effort.
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Strategic Context
more than Turkey, in spite of Turkeys impressive growth in publications. It was shown that, relatively few Saudi organizations are involved in the great majority of Saudi patenting activity. Only three organizations namely, Sabic, Saudi Aramco, and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals Research Institute, are responsible for 90 percent of KSA-based patents assigned by the U.S. Patent Office. This indicates that very few Saudi companies or research institutes are currently creating new-to-theworld technologies. KSA has a relatively small number of institutions that are responsible for most of the Kingdoms research, and even smaller number that are responsible for the majority of the Kingdoms patents. Applied research and technology development has not been highly valued in the Kingdom. Despite a steady expansion of markets and profits, many Saudi companies conduct little research and inventive activity. Collaboration among research organizations in the Kingdom is relatively weak. University-industrygovernment linkages are also not well developed. The above qualitative findings support the overall conclusion that Saudi Arabia has capabilities in science and technology, but these capabilities need to be further developed. Universities King Saud University (KSU) in Riyadh is the largest university in the Kingdom and has the largest number of scientific publications among all KSA universities. It has strong engineering and architectural schools. King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in Dhahran is strong in many areas related to the building industry. After KSU, it stands second in publications. KFUPM has a research institute that conducts applied research in economics and management systems, engineering, environment and minerals. King Abdulaziz University (KAU) in Jeddah is a major university with competencies in architecture, engineering and environmental science and technology. In addition to these and other existing universities, such as King Faisal University in Dammam, Umm Al-Qura University (UQU) in Makkah, Al-Qassim University (QU) in Qassim, and Taibah University (TU) in Madinah, several new universities are under establishment. Notable among those are the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST), and universities in Taif, Jazan, Hail and Al-Jouf. There are other independent, non-profit private institutions offering undergraduate education in the Kingdom. The top-tier KSA universities rank among the best in the region, but none of them are among the worlds leading KSA Universities and Research Institutes Saudi Arabias universities and research institutions play a very important role in engineering and architectural education and research relevant to the building and construction sector. This section outlines the most important universities and research institutions. innovation and value addition through new technologies. These firms will benefit from research on materials, especially on materials processing, advanced materials, prefabrication and production techniques.
Key Research Performing Organizations

Industries Saudi Arabias building and construction sector includes materials processing and manufacturing firms in addition to builders and contractors. Many manufacturing firms set up in various industrial zones focus primarily on production and fabrication of products for the Saudi market. These companies have generally benefited from import protection and cheap foreign workers. With WTO accession, drive toward Saudization and constraints ensuing from immigration laws, these advantages are slowly eroding. Saudi manufacturers need to compete on
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Strategic Context
universities in terms of research performance measured in terms of publications and patents, or in terms of broader, composite measures such as the Shanghai rankings. Lack of incentives for research, lack of availability of doctoral and post-doctoral students, teaching overloads and weak interaction with industry are cited as top reasons for such poor performance. Research Institutes There are four major building and construction technology centers and research institutes scattered within the Kingdom. The General Director of Building Research of the Ministry of Municipality and Rural Affair is one of the major building research centers in the Kingdom. It has programs on major aspects of building components, such as soil foundation, concrete and concrete structures, cement, ceramic, fire resistant materials and other. The center is mainly specialized in testing materials and its properties. The Research Center, College of Engineering, at KSU hosts research conducted by KSU faculty members in theoretical and applied areas. The Center provides the researchers with financial, technical and administrative support. Recently, a Center of Excellence for Research in Engineering Materials was established within the College of Engineering at KSU. It aims to support short and longterm material research and development leading to potential breakthroughs in building materials. The Center for Engineering Research at KFUPM conducts high quality contract and applied research and to provide outstanding consultancy services to the industry in materials, energy systems, corrosion, and construction technologies and related engineering fields. King Abdulaziz City of Science and Technology (KACST), the national science and technology agency, conducts research and provides grants to university researchers. KACST operates several national research institutes that perform, materials related research, including, Institute for Petroleum and Petrochemicals Research, the Energy Research Institute, the Institute of Natural Resources and Environmental Research, the Institute of Atomic Energy Research, and the Space Research Institute. Through its extramural research arm, KACST funds research at universities in building materials properties, building systems, construction and maintenance cost analysis and other construction or material related problems. In 2007, the Custodian of Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz approved three major nanotechnology centers in KAU, KSU and KFUPM. In addition, KACST established a national research center for nanotechnology. Development of cement-carbon and other building materials are part of the centers research agenda. The College of Engineering in KAU established a consultant center to build relationships with the private sector, especially in the building and construction industry.
Key National Needs

The stakeholders of the building and construction technology strategy have identified the following as the most pressing national needs of Saudi Arabia: Optimizing building design, construction, and operation and maintenance cost. Enhancing and developing new affordable and durable local building materials, utilizing local raw and waste materials. Enhancing and developing new affordable building systems. Developing sustainable and secure buildings; Safeguarding the environment and improving quality of life. Developing building capacity and infrastructures, and diffusing scientific and technological knowledge.
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Strategic Context
Enhancing the current status of research and development (R&D). Enhancing the manpower needed to achieve the objectives through clear training policies and structured programs aiming at building local expertise in required specializations with due respect to priority areas. research in building and construction-related disciplines. The main departments related to the building and construction field are: Architectural. Structural engineering. Civil engineering. Mechanical engineering. Electrical engineering. Environmental engineering. Material engineering. Chemical engineering. Building and Construction engineering and management. Fire engineering. Industrial engineering. A wide range of innovative research is being carried out at various international universities in sustainable construction and development. Global awareness toward climate change, sustainable development, energy efficiency, smart communities and other related issues, is driving research and shaping education in the building and construction field. Regional and International Research Institutes Internationally, there are more than 400 building research centers and institutes supported either by government or private sector. In the region, there are seven building research institutes supported by national governments of the KSA, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt, Sudan and Israel. Most of these regional and international research institutes perform long-term strategic research and applied research directed specifically to building and structural materials, systems and performance. The main research activities Regional and International Universities There are about 254 universities in fifteen countries in the region and more than 4,000 universities around the world. Most of these universities teach and carry out Building Materials and Technology Under this category, research is primarily concerned with: carried out in these institutes include:
Stakeholders Roles
Construction is a major industry in Saudi Arabia. It requires a multidisciplinary approach involving experts from materials research, engineering, architecture and a host of other fields. It also requires regulation, and enforcement of standards at the national and local levels. Given the countrys aspiration to transform itself into a knowledge-driven economy, and given the importance of the construction sector to the national economy, it is important that all relevant stakeholders in the construction sector coordinate their efforts in a systemic manner. The stakeholders for B&CTS include KACST, universities, various Independent or specialized research institutes, Ministries, other government agencies, and private companies. The following table shows the roles of these stakeholders in the program.
Analysis of Regional and International Universities and Research Institutes

For Saudi Arabia to excel in building and construction technology research and innovation, collaboration with regional and international research centers and universities is a prerequisite. This section elaborates on some of the current trends at leading centers and universities.
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Strategic Context
Utilization of wastes and by-products in building materials. Improvement of cement; Concrete and fiber reinforced concrete properties. Masonry, glass, wood, plastic, ceramics and new innovated materials. Analysis and development of new building materials Table 3: National stakeholders and their roles Stakeholder KACST Roles Plan, coordinate and manage the strategic plan. Conduct applied research, technology transfer and prototype applications development. Manage and participate in national projects. Provide support for university and industrial participation in national projects. Provide support for national research facilities. Provide advice and services to government on science and technology. Host and participate in Centers of Excellence for technology development and Innovation. Conduct applied research, technology transfer and prototype applications development. Teach and train students in science and engineering. Create new basic and applied scientific knowledge. Participate in collaborative projects. Provide technical advice and services to government and industry. Create new applied scientific knowledge. Participate in collaborative projects. Operation and implementation of technologies and projects. Provide input to program on government R&D needs. Reduce regulatory and procedural barriers to R&D and innovation. Unifying and standardizing governance systems (laws, regulations, code, specs). Support R&D in universities and industry. To participate in practical training through their specialized training centers such as Engineering Training Centre in MOMRA. To monitor and enforce updated codes, regulations,etc. Develop and commercialize products & processes resulting from the research and development program. Communicate company needs to the research and development programs. Support and participate in collaborative R&D projects. Support and participate in the Technology Innovation Centers. and components. Polymeric and bituminous materials for coatings and waterproofing. Durability of building materials and building elements. Corrosion of steel in concrete. Repair and maintenance. Microstructure and properties of building materials.
Universities
Independent or Government Specialized Research Centers Ministry and Government Agencies
Private Sector
19
Strategic Context
Solution of problems in application of prefabrication technologies. Industrialization of finishing work in buildings. Adaptation of materials to special uses in buildings and infrastructures. Advanced and Nano-materials. Rehabilitation of structures using composite materials. Use of pre-cast concrete elements in buildings. Use of autoclaved concrete in construction. Structural Engineering Research under this category primarily includes: Earthquake engineering. Damage and repair of buildings. Assessment of existing structures. Strength and serviceability requirements of concrete and steel structures. Behavior of Steel structures. Optimization of design. Composite structures. Prefabricated systems. Lightweight elements. Masonry. Prestressed elements. Structures for special loading conditions (wind, snow, temperature, vibrations, dynamic and impact loading). Structural stability. Computer implementation. Cost-effectiveness of building codes. Structural damage and fracture mechanics. Structure foundations and soil-structure interaction. Special purpose structures. Protective structures. Modeling of structures. Structural safety and reliability. Smart structures. Construction Management and Engineering Research subtopics under this category include: Industrialization, automation and robotics in construction. Computerized information systems. Expert systems. Neural network in constructions. Management techniques in construction planning, organization and control Management under uncertainty. Construction equipment and site organization. Life-cycle costing of building systems and building equipment. Computer-aided design for building construction and site management. Production rates control. Building Performance Research under this category includes: Hydrothermal analysis and properties of materials, components and buildings. Air quality and moisture problems in buildings. Building climatology and thermal analysis of buildings and of urban areas. Passive thermal control systems and means. Ventilation and wind effects. Acoustic performance of components and spaces. Effect of environmental noise on buildings. Fire safety, building services, intelligent buildings, etc. Development of criteria and evaluation methodologies for overall performance of buildings. Development of test methods. Building systems and components. Building envelope testing. Energy and water conservation systems. Ecologically sustainable development (ESD).
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Strategic Context
Some of the leading research institutes around the world that offer promising collaboration opportunities are presented in the following table. cost, life-cycle cost, and resale value. Durable: offering enhanced safety and resistance to natural hazards, including moisture, fire, and disaster, as well as decreased maintenance needs. Environmental: harmless to the natural environment, resource-efficient, and appropriately balanced between embodied energy and durability. Healthy and comfortable: harmless to the well-being of construction workers and occupants and providing good air quality and flow, thermal and visual comfort, natural ventilation and light, and protection against fire, moisture, chemicals, radon, and noise pollution. Intelligent: using advanced sensors, monitors, controls, and communication technologies to improve resource efficiency, comfort, affordability, adaptability, durability, and environmental harmony. The concept of sustainable building, green building or carbon-neutral development is getting a lot of policy attention around the world. For example, the British governments call for all homes to be zero carbon by 2016 has sent the construction industry into a green overdrive. Related to this subject, the Germans have developed and practiced the use of renewable energy sources at homes, incentivizing the home producers of energy to trade excess energy through a national energy exchange. These Global trends point to a paradigm shift in characteristics of buildings. These trends indicate that the buildings of the future will tend to be: Energy-positive: minimizing energy use; providing heating, cooling, and electricity; and storing or returning excess electricity to the grid. Adaptable: designed for movable walls, convertible rooms, flexible systems and future technology innovations. Affordable: cost-effective in terms of comprehensive home ownership, spanning first cost, maintenance Green building could involve the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings use resources --energy, water and materials-- while reducing building impacts on human health and the environment through better sitting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal (the complete building life cycle). Generally, it incorporates five major components: sustainable design; initiatives are an indication of possible future trends in building technologies in general, and the green building concept in particular.
International Trends in Building and Construction Technologies

The building industry represents one of the oldest, largest, and most important economic sectors in the world. However, this sector is facing new challenges manifested in consumer demands for lower cost, more adaptable, smarter and lower maintenance buildings while simultaneously reducing the impact on the environment. Major challenges derived from social, economic and environmental factors and trends are necessitating new advancements in technology for the sector. For example, key environmental considerations driving technological change include reduced energy consumption, conservation of primary resources, reduced use of water, and climate change effect (the need to reduce GHG emissions). Social factors driving change includes demand for new homes, greater variations in the make-up of households, changing demand for different types of buildings at lower costs, and demand for reductions in risks to health and safety. Integration of new technologies into the buildings fabric and construction is also an emerging change driver.
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Strategic Context
safeguarding water and water efficiency, energy efficiency and renewable energy, conservation of materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality. Research and development related to energy efficiency and renewable energy, comprise the main activities in green building development initiative. The creation of an energy-efficient building starts with the design process itself. Research related to this stream covers building envelope, orientation, materials, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, as well as the use of artificial intelligence to reduce the energy consumption of a building.
Table 4: Some of the leading research institute in the world Country USA UK Japan Denmark Jordan India Canada UK China China Austria Korea South Africa Germany USA USA USA Germany Egypt Organization Name National Science Foundation Building Research Establishment Building Research Institute Danish Building Research Institute Building Research Center, Royal Scientific Society The Central Building Research Institute National Research Center Central Research Institute for Building Structures China Academy for Building Research China Building Technology Development Centre Austrian Institutes for Building research Korean Institute for Construction Technology National Building Research Institute Academy of Building Green Building Research Center at the Univ. of California-Berkeley Building Technology Center at Oak Ridge National Lab rotary Construction Research Center, the Univ. of Texas at Arlington German Research Community (DFG) Housing and Building Research Center

Strategic Context
Renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal can be used to reduce the carbon footprint of a building. Conservation of materials and resources is another research area in green building approach. This area of research focuses on technologies that are made from environmentally attractive materials (salvaged products, postconsumer or post-industrial recycled content, rapidly renewable products, minimally processed materials), green products, engineered materials and reconstituted materials. Indoor environmental quality is a major technological challenge. Reduction of potentially harmful chemicals and biological agents, including carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), molds, various allergens, and infectious agents utilizing nanotechnology, organic based substance and advance material technology is a priority area. A green building approach also embraces not just how we build but also where we build, taking into consideration site selection, development density, transportation, and other factors that contribute to the sphere of the approach. Until recently, the concept of high-performance green buildings was difficult to define and the practice even more obscure. Today, advances in technology, combined with growing industry awareness and attractive financial incentives and benefits, are rapidly transforming the green building landscape. The search for affordable, less time-consuming, and maintenance-free buildings and constructions have led to the promising Advanced Panelized Construction (APC) technology. Panelized construction is a method where the building is subdivided into basic planar elements that are typically constructed offsite through mass production, and then shipped directly to the Advanced composite material is another technology that has been transferred into and utilized by the building and construction sector. New and improved materials with better thermal and structural properties are enhancing building efficiency and reducing environmental impacts. An example of use of improved material is Pixel Panels that are a mix of 92.5% concrete and 7.5% polymers that allows light to penetrate, thus reducing electricity bills. Transparent ceramics is another innovative material that could be widely used in buildings. These ceramics are durable and super-strong, and at the same time they are also transparent, meaning they can be used for highly durable windows including rich, jewel-like colors. In addition, carbon or glass fiber reinforced plastic sheet and rebar are being used in strengthening and rehabilitation of buildings and structures. These are a few of the emerging trends in technology shaping the building and construction sector. Technology transfer from other fields of science into the building and construction field is beginning to have significant impact on construction around the world. For example, nanotechnology is altering material properties in unprecedented ways. In the United States of America alone, 130 startups and established companies are offering or developing nanomaterial for green buildings, 54 projects are underway at universities and research centers, and 43 recent patents are available for licensing. A case in point is the use of nanotechnology to develop Aerogel frozen smoke, which has been used to develop organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). OLEDS make light ten times more efficient. construction site for assembly into the finished structure.
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Strategic Context
Benchmarking of Research Performance
Publication Activities There is a general agreement that publications and patents strongly correlate with scientific research capacity, although publication and patent counts alone do not fully represent the quality or scope of research. Nonetheless, publication and patent activity have long been used as indicators for knowledge creation and research output. Research in building technology is published by several thousand public and private institutions of higher education in more than 140 countries. A limited assessment of research publication was carried out as part of this planning effort. This analysis covered articles published by each country in tier 1 journals in related subject between the year 2005 and 2008. The journals on which the study was based included: Journal for Construction and Building Materials; Journal for Composite Structure; A factor for comparison was calculated by dividing the number of articles published over the number of higher education institutions in each country. Also, a referenced factor was calculated by dividing the number of articles published by each country over the number of articles published by KSA. As presented in the following tables, China was the largest producer publishing 304 related articles, followed by the USA (199) and the UK (154). KSA institutions published only 16 articles. However, when the number of articles were normalized over the number of higher education institutions in each country, (4th column in table), Korea was the largest producer of research papers (1.04) followed by Australia (0.85) and UK (0.68). The following chart depicts data on total number of research articles by each benchmark country. Journal for Energy and Building; and Journal for Building and Environments.
Table 5: Building and construction technology publications (2006-2008) Country Australia Canada China Germany India Japan Korea KSA UAE UK USA Higher Education Institutions (No.) 79 05 891 390 36 671 10 4 33 8 3348 Articles (No.) 67 55 304 4 6 73 106 16 8 154 199 Articles/HEI Factor 0.85 0.27 0.34 0.11 0.19 0.11 1.04 0.38 0.24 0.68 0.06 Referenced Factor 4.20 2.85 19.0 2.63 3.88 4.56 6.63 1.0 0.62 9.6 12.4
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Strategic Context
Figure 3: Publications by country
Number of Publications by Benchmark

350
19
0 18 16
300
Number of Published Articles
50
12.4
14 1
9.6
00
10 8 6
150
6.6
100
4.2 2.85 2.63
3.88
4.56
4
1 16 0.62 8 154 199
50
67 55 304
0
4
6
73
106
China
Germany
Australia
Canada
KSA
UAE
UK
India
Japan
Patent Activities The building and construction sector is marked by a high degree of intellectual property creation and protection. As shown in the following table, there were several patent applications filed between 2006 and 2008 with the International Patent Classification (IPC) and listed by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Statistics Database in July 2008. The majority of these patents are related to engineering and building fields. KSA shows the second lowest number of patents as compared with other
benchmark countries (see Figure 9). It can be seen that the USA was the largest producer with 116,975 related patents, followed by Japan and Germany with 62,336 and 38,786 patents respectively. Saudi Arabia produced only 150 patents over the same period. However, when the number of patents is normalized over the number of higher education institutions in each country, Korea was the largest producer of patents (145) followed by Germany (99.5) and Japan (93).
Korea
USA
Referenced Factor
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Strategic Context
The following table shows the technical fields of PCT international patent applications published for 20062007 and annual growth in 2007. The fastest growing technical fields included environmental technology The following chart depicts data on total number of registered patents by benchmark country. (12.3%) and civil engineering and building (6.6%).
Table 6: PCT application field (2006-2008) Higher Education Institutions (No.) 79 05 891 390 671 10 4 33 8 3348
Country Australia Canada China Germany Japan Korea KSA UAE UK USA
Patents (No.) 4506 6136 10713 38786 6336 14811 150 8 1008 116975
Patents/ HEI Factor 57.0 30.0 12.0 99.5 93.0 145.0 3.60 0.24 52.67 35.0
Referenced Factor 30.0 41.0 71.0 258.0 416.0 99.0 1.0 0.05 80.0 780.0
Table 7: Technical fields Year 2006 6399 5680 3836 1585 4748 2007 6688 5863 4045 1780 5084 6.6 3.2 5.4 12.3 7.1 Growth (%)
Technical Field Civil engineering and building Chemical engineering Materials Environmental technology Mechanical
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Strategic Context
Patents by country The aforementioned comparative assessment of research performance should be read in the context of a broader set of demographic and economic factors. The following table shows the total spending on construction for selected countries for the year 2007. The spending on construction per capita for Saudi Arabia ranked third after Japan and UK. The table also compares relevant demographic and economic indicators such as population, GDP, GDP per capita etc.
Figure 4: Patent by Benchmark

10000
780
900 800 700
100000
Number of Registered Patents
416
500 400
60000
58
40000
300 00
0000
30 41 6136 71 10713 38786 6336
99 1 14811 150 0.05 8
80
100
1008 116975
4506
Germany
Australia
China
KSA
Canada
Japan
Korea
USA
UAE
UK
Referenced Factor
80000
600
7
Strategic Context
SWOT Analysis
This section presents a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis of the Saudi Building and Construction Technology Strategic Plan relative to achieving its vision. In a SWOT analysis, strengths and weaknesses are internal to the organization or strategic plan while opportunities and threats are defined as external to the organization. Strengths 1. Establishment of Saudi Building Code (SBC), SASO standards and the General Specifications of Building Construction (GSBC) issued by Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs (MOMRA). 2. Attention of government (as manifested in the national development plans) and industry to building technology. 3. Present and future promising business opportunities Table 8: Economic and demographic indicators for various countries Population (Millions) 60.27 127.4 48.8 25.2 4.3 10.3 47.4 Const. Market (Billion $) 08 500 96 85 47.3 4.4 25.6 Const. Market /Population 3.45 3.92 1.97 3.37 11 0.43 0.54 GDP Growth (%) 2.1 2.7 5 4 6.3 6 4.8 GDP (Billion $) 1664 4664 897.4 378.1 113.6 7 177.1 GDP /Capital ($) 27,700 31,500 16,291 15,887 26,500 2,600 3,700
Country UK Japan Korea KSA UAE Tunisia South Africa
Area (km2) 242,900 377,915 99,678 2,000,000 83,600 163,610 1,221,037
in the B&CTs field. 4. Availability of the technical and scientific research infrastructure. 5. Interest at the national level in developing, utilizing and integrating modern technologies such as nano-technology, biotechnology, advanced materials, and other technologies into building and construction technologies. 6. Government support to stimulate new, value-adding, downstream industries utilizing crude oil. 7. Rapid growth in the construction sector encompassing housing and commercial complexes, new economic cities and industrial zones. 8. Availability of the necessary financial support for
technology transfer within the National Science and Technology Policy. 9. Regional and international agreements and collaboration in science and technology. 10. The growing demand for building and construction technologies and the lack of competition in the technology market at the local level. 11.Commitment to implementation of the science and technology policy and its strategic plans. Weaknesses 1. The slow development and implementation of SBC and SASO standards. 2. Non-unified and standardized governmental systems
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Strategic Context
(laws, regulations, code, specifications etc.); 3. Failure to activate the scientific and technical infrastructure for transferring and developing technologies at appropriate levels; 4. Poor quality of scientific research in science and technology systems at the local level. 5. Fragmentation of building industry and lack of investment in research and development, as well as in adoption and use of new technologies. 6. Poor utilization of the international cooperation agreements and opportunities related to technology transfer. 7. Shortages of technical research personnel and equipment. 8. Lack of involvement of national specialists in planning, design and project management in both government and private sectors; 9. The difficulty of attracting distinguished experts and scholars to live in KSA. 10.Insufficient Saudi colleges or departments specialized in building and construction technologies; 11.The absence of civil society institutions that would contribute in the awareness of the importance of technology developments; 12.Lack of clear training policies and structured programs needed to enhance local expertise in required areas. 13.Low remuneration (income) for individuals working in research field and educational institutions compared to some other occupations. Opportunities 1. Growing demand, at a global level, for innovative building and construction technologies in keeping with emerging trends related to sustainable developments, green buildings, and durable construction; 2. Enforcement of standards and specifications such as SBC, SASO standards and the General Specifications Threats 1. Global competition to develop innovative solutions for the building and construction sector. 2. The difficulty in transferring technology from proprietors. 3. Contradictions and conflicts among policies and government regulations. 4. Lack of access to knowledge due to concerns of technical security and political controls. 5. Entry of lower-cost foreign competitors due to WTO agreements. of Building Construction (GSBC) at the local level; 3. Growing demand for innovative Building and Construction Technologies, to commit and adhere with policy and regulatory drive through international treaties such as; United Nation Framework to combat climate change (UNFCCC) and Basel Convention etc; 4. Presence of international agreements with KSA related to technology transfer of building and construction technologies 5. The growing awareness regarding environmental security at the global level and their relationship to international security and integrity of natural systems;
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Higher Strategy
This section provides the vision, mission, and strategic priorities for the Kingdoms Building and Constructions Technology Strategic Plan.
Vision
To be recognized as a developer of innovative and knowledgeable solutions in the field of building and construction technologies.
Mission
To enhance and develop feasible research and development programs that will catalyze the transfer, localization and development of technologies and solutions for the domestic building and construction sector through national and international collaboration.
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Higher Strategy
Strategic Goals
The strategic objectives of the plan are aligned with the key needs of the Kingdom and the broad developmental goals set forth in the National Policy for Science and Technology: 1. Transfer, localize and develop feasible and cost effective building and construction technologies to improve quality of life. 2. Enhance the quality and productivity of research in strategic areas relevant to safety and long-term service life of the structures. 3. Develop sustainable, durable and environmental friendly structures based on latest research and technological advancements. 4. Encourage construction industry to have professionals who add value to the development of building and construction technologies. 5. Bridge the gap between end users, R&D organizations and private sector to generate new investment opportunities. 6. Involve stakeholder in action plan and decisions making. 7. Develop human resources in numbers and caliber - to undertake these formidable tasks.
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Technology Areas
Main Research and Development Programs:
In order to fulfill the strategic objectives and the kingdoms needs, considering national issues, economical impact, optimization and sustainability, stakeholders identified major R&D programs to be: 1. Safety. 2. Health. 3. Energy. 4. Environment. 5. New Trends. The sphere of the programs main R&D activities, generally involve one of the following areas: a. Enhancement and improvement of an existing technology. b. Development of a new technology. c. Localization of an existing or a new technology. Principal Initiatives These main R&D programs are based on and designed to satisfy the following principal initiatives: 1. Affordable and Cost-effective. 2. Adaptable and durable. 3. Safeguarding water and water efficiency. 4. Energy efficiency and renewable energy. 5. Conservation of materials and resources, and 6. Indoor environmental quality. Main Themes The target of these programs will be accomplished by transferring, developing and localizing selected technologies that could serve either design or construction or/and operation and maintenance O&M projects, and should address one or more of the following main themes: 1. Building and Construction Materials, Architectural: Structural
3
Technology Areas
Geotechnical (Grid and backfill materials) Electrical. Mechanical. Sanitary. Insulation. Advance/ composite. Other materials. 2. Building and Construction Systems; Concrete. Masonry. Steel. Composite. Other Systems. 3. Building Design, Performance and Quality Assurance; and Buildings safety, serviceability and durability. Structural Dynamics and earthquake engineering. Geotechnical aspects ( foundation soil interaction) Hydrothermal analysis and properties of materials, components and buildings. Air quality, ventilation and moisture problems in buildings. Building climatology and thermal analysis of buildings and of urban areas. Passive thermal control systems and means. Acoustic performance of components and spaces. Effect of environmental noise on buildings; Fire safety, building services, intelligent buildings, etc. Development of criteria, evaluation methodologies and monitoring overall performance of buildings. Development of test methods. Building systems and components. Building envelope testing. Energy and water conservation systems. Ecologically sustainable development (ESD).
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Technology Areas
4. Building Assembly systems. Electrical; Mechanical. Electro-mechanical. Sanitary. Safety, Security and monitoring. Other Systems. 5. Technologys strategic alignment. Alignment with the plan strategic objectives. Alignment with the priority programs.
Priority Project Areas

For the first five years (1429-1434) a priority project areas are identified based on the most pressing kingdoms need in the building and construction sectors, and in alignment with the R&D programs. These areas are: Safety: 1. Durable and serviceable structural systems (design, construction and maintenance). 2. Fire proofing materials and systems. 3. Smart and advanced electro-mechanical materials and systems. Health: 1. Moisture and damping Insulation. 2. Sound proofing. 3. Advanced materials and systems for Floors and walls. 4. Smart windows and openings systems. Energy: 1. Solar. 2. Heat Insulation. 3. Buildings envelop orientation. Environment: 1. Water conservation. 2. Construction/ demolition waste reusing and recycling. 3. Environmental friendly Synthesis materials development. New trends: 1. Low cost structural systems (design, construction and maintenance). 2. Fiber Composite materials (Polymer, Plastic, Glass, Carbon, etc.). 3. Smart (concrete, Mansonry and composite) materials and systems. 4. Advanced ceramics and alloyed materials and systems.
Technology Selection Criteria

Selection of projects (related to improving, transferring and developing building and construction technologies) under each R&D program will be subjected to certain criteria that will adapt to evolving strategic needs of the kingdom. For the first five year plan (1429-1434H) the criteria for selection are: 1. Technologys Demand/Need. Impact of technology on existing/Future industry. Size of industry benefit from technology. 2. Technologys Surrounding Environment. Intellectual property issues. Accessibility to the technology. Availability of local infrastructure and man power. Availability of international science and technology cooperation/ Signed agreement. Integration with other strategic technologies. 3. Technologys Competence and Quality. Technology Life Cycle. Environmental impact. Suitability to local weather and geological condition. 4. Technologys Economics. Size of jobs it could generate. Cost effectiveness. Economic shortfall from not using the technology.
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Implementation Structure
Structure and Strategic Connection
The following schematic depicts the connection among strategy components. It captures the main inputs and outputs of the process for selecting, transferring, developing and localizing building and construction technologies.
Performance Indicators
General Key Performance Indicators Have been set for assessing and monitoring the operation and implementation of this strategic plan. These indicators are grouped technically and administratively. The administrative indicators include: Number and impact of successful applications of Building and Construction to stakeholder needs. Expansion of number of research-active specialist in the Kingdom. Number of papers published in journals and their impact. Number of generated patents. Number of products successfully entering the market. Number of successfully incubated new companies. Number of researchers trained and applications eveloped. Number of man-hours achieved in structured training related to the programs of this plan.
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Figure 5: Strategic connections among strategic plan elements
Kingdom Key Needs Strategic Objectives Principal Initiatives Priority Programs Main Themes Design Issue O & M Issue Cons. Issue Technology Development or Enhancement Enhancement or Improvement of an Existing Technology Development of New Technology Localization of an Existing New Technology Private Sector
Vision and Mission
Technology Selection Critiria Technology Selection Technology Transfer
Research and Development Institutes (projects) Environmental, Social, Eco and Other Needed Studies Technology Localization
Government Sector
Problems and Needs Technology Development
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Technical Indicators
Technical indicators are presented in the following table. Table 9: Technical performance indicators Priorities Safety Objective 1) Transferring, localizing and developing feasible and cost effective building and construction technologies to improve life quality 2) Enhancing the quality and productivity of research in strategic areas relevant to safety and long term life of the structures. 3) Developing of a sustainable, durable and environmental friendly materials based on latest researches, current technological advancements and challenges of building and construction technologies 4) Elevating the construction industries to have the professionals who will have added value to the development of building and construction technologies. 5) Bridging between end users, R&D and privet sector to generate new investment opportunities (business opportunities). 6) Involving stakeholder in action plan and decisions making. Techniques Conduct applied research and prototype applications Strengthen industrys ability to competence in international market Provide support to Universities Participate in collaborative projects Develop internationally competitive products and processes Sustainable and safe environment Conservation of national resources Conservation of energy Conservation of water
Health
Energy
Environment
Research-active specialist Create new applied scientific knowledge Support and participate by privet sector in R&D projects Coordinate privet sector needs with strategy priorities Support and participate in technologies centers Reduce regularity & procedural barriers Participation in the advisory committee for B&CTSC
New Trends
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Action Plan
Implementation of the strategic plan for building materials technology will require activities at three levels: the initiation, the transition, and the action levels. Initiation level Enriching the awareness of the importance of building and construction technology for various objectives i.e. healthy environment, energy conservation, and low maintenance cost for long term. Some of the techniques that can be used are: Establishing a Building and Construction National Research Center. Building a chain of local professional groups including the establishment of a scientific society. Developing a detailed roadmap. Prioritizing and organizing R&D programs. Organizing national and international workshops and conferences. Holding international exposition in B&CTs in Saudi Arabia. Establishing structured training courses in Saudi universities and colleges and other capable entities such as MOMRA and the Engineers Council. Transition level Developing or inventing technologies in building and construction materials and systems. Examples of techniques that can be used are: Initiating funded projects in Saudi R&D institutes with international experts. Initiating exchange programs with different professional levels. Setting regulations and policies enforcing the use of B&CTs in harmony with the new Saudi Building Code (SBC), with setting the priorities of these technologies. Establishing centers of excellence in B&CTs in Saudi Arabia. Application level pplying transferred and developed technologies in the industry sector.
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Implementation Plan To facilitate the implementation of the B&CT strategic plan, a National Building and Construction Technologies Center (NBCTC) should be established at KACST. NBCTC will take responsibility for the overall management of the plan and for the coordination and evaluation of the program components at the national level. A network of centers of excellence in building and construction materials and technologies should be established at Saudi universities and institutions to accelerate technology transfer and development. A major task for the first year of the program will be for KACST to develop the necessary governance infrastructure and operational plan. That will require hiring skilled technical staff capable of overseeing large scale technical initiatives that span several different institutions and research centers. It is essential to build the skills necessary to lead and develop these programs, and to plan them carefully. As part of the initial activities under this plan, KACST staff and other stakeholder members will visit programs of a similar nature elsewhere in the world to discuss their management practices and lessons learned. A Building and Construction Advisory Committee will be established, with stakeholder membership, to oversee the implementation of the plan. It will review performance metrics and provide advice on the portfolio of projects. It will also propose appropriate regulations and government incentives to promote wider utilization of high impact new building and construction technologies. The Committee will report to the National S&T Plan Supervisory Committee, which will oversee all of the National S&T Programs. The Advisory Committee will meet four times a year and review progress in the programs. The national advisory committee will also sponsor and oversee studies of emerging areas of Building and Construction Technology, to serve as the basis for developing new program areas. This plan will be reviewed and updated annually. In addition to the national advisory committee input, it is expected that workshops with the research community, users, industry and other stakeholders will also contribute to both a continual evaluation of the plan as well as a stronger technology research and development in the Kingdom
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Appendix A: Stakeholders
Stakeholders and their Activities
Organization Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs (MOMRA) Activities The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs is by far the largest stakeholder of all private and governmental entities in the Kingdom. It has 8 deputies which have control over the general land planning and urban development as well as the enforcing of building regulations through granting building and occupancy permits. The Deputy Ministry of Central Directorate for Development of Projects (CDDP) formerly Public Works is the Ministrys arm to implement projects in Holy Areas. The CDDP has in the last twelve years supervised the planning and implementation of MEGA Projects in addition to being a party in engineering developments in the Kingdom. The Ministry conducts several activities through different deputy and general directorate. This includes: Contractor Classification, Building Materials Research, Engineering training, Re-engineering. Enhancing industrial competitive capabilities. Providing an infrastructure supportive of enhanced industrial development. Enacting suitable laws and regulations to ensure a fair, competitive market for industrial products. Building an industrial data base which will monitor & coordinate inter-industry flows. Promoting investment in the infrastructure of industrial cities & technology zones. Formulating of regional deployment of particular technologies. Formulating and approving of national standards. Setting the rules for granting certificates of conformity and quality mark and regulating their issuance and use. Utilizing advanced technology to acquire and interpret geo-science information, and develop sustainable mineral and water resources. Protecting the environment and monitor geo-hazards to secure a better life for our people. Attracting sufficient investment to achieve sustainable rapid economic growth while capitalizing on the Kingdoms competitive strengths as the global capital of energy, and as a major hub between East and West. Providing comprehensive licensing and support services to investors in establishing their businesses. Identifying opportunities that are linked to the countrys competitive advantages and match them to investors fitting a strategic, risk, and financial profile. Cooperating with regional authorities to create region-specific investment promotion plans and strategies. Host and participate in Centers of Excellence for technology development and Innovation. Conduct applied research, technology transfer and prototype applications development. Teach and train students in science and engineering. Create new basic and applied scientific knowledge. Provide technical advice and services to government and industry.
Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI)
Saudi Arabian Standard Organization (SASO) Saudi Arabian Geological Survey Authority (SGS)
Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA)
Saudi Universities
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Organization Saudi Council for Engineering (SCE) Activities Promoting the engineering profession, develop and upgrade its standards and those practicing it. Setting criteria and standards. Profession development. Setting license terms and conditions. Setting rules and regulations. Conducting examinations for obtaining professional degrees. Promoting, assisting, servicing and otherwise encourage the development of basic, downstream and light industries that would utilize the Kingdoms natural resources to produce value added products for local use and export. Planning, developing, constructing, operating and maintaining the various infrastructure and services needed for the above industries and for the people working in these industries. Encouraging the use and enhancement of the skills and talents of the Saudi citizens in the above activities. Maintaining a balance between industrial development and environmental safety that is compatible with sustainable development. Encouraging the participation of local and foreign private investment. Working in liaison with other agencies such as Saudi Aramco, the Seaports Authority and others to facilitate the availability of feedstock and other services needed by the industries. Functioning as a City Manager responsible for the safety and security of the entire industrial area under its jurisdiction. Preparing and train individuals to perform the required industrial, commercial, agricultural and services activities that contribute to the national economy whether by working in public or private sectors. Providing the individual with the Islamic values and general knowledge that help them adopt a good way of thinking and adjust to different environments. Creating a scientific base of technical manpower that can easily deal with the rapid development in technology. Providing opportunities for individuals who desire to learn a profession or continue training to the highest level that his mental and physical capabilities allow. Developing the skills of technicians and update their professional information on a continuing base. Underlining the importance of handicraft and vocational work and their role in the prosperity of the society. Contributing in halting the movement of citizens to big cities by opening vocational training centers in all Kingdoms regions. Preparing a building code for the Kingdom including criteria of designing building that are resistant to earthquakes. Preparing a plan to study the assessment and improvement for the earthquake efficiency of buildings that are currently found in earthquake-stricken areas in the kingdom. Proposing regulations that obligate public and private sectors to implement Code requirements and the criteria of buildings design that resist the earthquakes in the Kingdom.
Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu (RCJY)
Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC)
Saudi Arabian Building Code National Committee (SBCNC)
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Organization Saudi Aramco Activities Saudi Aramco uses and develops innovative approaches to maximize productivity, efficiency and safety. R&D Center hosts a Technical Exchange Meeting to provide a forum for scientists and engineers to exchange new ideas, identify mechanisms for technology transfer and review the latest scientific developments in a variety of disciplines. R&D Center sponsors membership in scientific societies, where members are encouraged to give presentations and conduct discussion groups. Producing and undertake R&D in chemical, plastic and steel industry. It contributes a vital role in the construction, development and industrialization of some of the worlds fastest-growing economies. Representing Saudi building materials and construction traders, contractors & manufacturers.
Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC)
The Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce (CSCC)
4
Stakeholder Representatives and Plan Participants
Participants Name Mohammed Binhussain Mohammed Alhussaini Abdullah Alkhalid Walid Molla Badr Alsderi Magdi Khalifa Lother Powroschnik Khalid Alotaibi Sami Mirza Khalid Alfi Moataz Badawi Tarek Almusallam Alfarabi Sharif Faris Alfaraidy Adnan Alsahhaf Abdullah Alarainy Rajeh Alzaid Abdulaziz Al-Negheimish Khalid Alsharif Fuad Bukhari Mohammed Alisa Organization
KACST
MOMRA
MCI SASO SGS UQU KSU KFUPM KFU SCE RCJY SBCNC Saudi Aramco Ithar Consultant Plastbau Arabia Co.
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Appendix B: Research Focus of Local Universities and Research Institutes

University/Institute King Fahad University for Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) Colleges/Departments Sciences, Computer Sciences & Engineering, Engineering Sciences & Applied Engineering, Environmental Design, Industrial Management, Civil Engineering Research Topics and Fields Building Material: raw material, concrete, composite and others. Building Systems: concrete, masonry, steel, composite system; Building Assembly Systems: mechanical, electrical & safety systems. Building Material: raw material, concrete, masonry, others; Building Systems: concrete, block, steel, mixed system. Building Assembly Systems: mechanical system (e.g. HVAC) electrical & safety systems, others. Building Material: raw material, manufacture product. others; Building Systems: concrete, block, steel, mixed system; Building Assembly Systems: mechanical system (e.g. HVAC) electrical & safety systems, others. Building Assembly Systems: mechanical system (e.g. HVAC) electrical & safety systems, others. Building Material: raw material, concrete, masonry, steel, composite and admixture. Building Systems: concrete, block, steel, FRPS structural strengthening; Building Assembly Systems: HVAC, indoor quality electrical & safety systems, others. Building Material: raw material, manufacture product. others; Building Systems: Concrete, block, steel, mixed system; Building Assembly Systems: mechanical system (e.g. HVAC) electrical & safety systems, others. Building Material: raw material, manufacture product. others; Building Systems: concrete, block, steel, mixed system.
King Abdulaziz University (KAU)
Electrical and Computer, Mechanical, Civil, Chemical, Industrial Engineering, Urban Design.
King Faisal University (KFU)
Architecture and planning architecture, construction engineering, urban and interior design, Islamic arch. Research center.
King Khalid University (KKU) King Saud University (KSU)
Science, Information Technology, Mechanical, Industrial Engineering Sciences, Information Technology, Electrical, Mechanical, Civil, Chemical, Industrial Engineering, Survey, Architecture & Planning
Um Alqora University (UQU)
Islamic Architecture Electrical, Mechanical, Civil, Computer Engineering.
Qasim University (QU)
Electrical, Civil, Mechanical Engineering, Health Engineering
Taif University (TU) Jouf University (JU)
Computer Engineering Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, Computer, Industrial Engineering
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www.kacst.edu.sa
www.mep.gov.sa
King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology Doc. No. 22 P0001-PLN-0001-ER01
DAKKIN 01 478 8584
Environment Water Information Technology ECP Nanotechnology
Petrochemicals
Biotechnology
Energy
Strategic Priorities for Energy Technology Program
Contents
Executive Summary Introduction Background Scope Plan Development Process Strategic Context KSA Energy R&D Needs Stakeholders Roles Analysis of Comparable Energy R&D Institutes Analysis of Energy Publications and Patents SWOT Analysis for KSA Energy Research and Innovation Program Higher Strategy Vision Mission Program Values and Culture Program Strategic Goals Technology Areas Selection Process Selected Technology Areas Program Structure Program Objectives
4 7 7 8 8 10 10 11 1 13 3 4 4 4 4 5 6 6 6 8 8
Contents
Performance Indicators for Objectives Program Projects Categories Operational Plans Technology transfer plan Quality Management Plan Human Resources Plan Communications Management Plan Risk Management Plan Implementation of the Plan Appendix A: Plan Development Process Portfolio Management 9 9 30 31 3 3 33 34 35 36 38
Executive summary
The National Policy for Science and Technology, approved by the Council of Ministers in 1423 H (2002 G), defined 11 programs for localization and development of strategic technologies that are essential for the Kingdoms future development. The King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) was given responsibility for developing 5-year strategic and implementation plans for each of these 11 technology programs. This roadmap is the plan for one of these programs, the Energy Technology Program.
Energy technologies are of particular importance to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Energy is a key driver of the countrys development and economic growth. Furthermore, the electricity sector in the Kingdom faces great challenges in fulfilling the rising demand for electricity consumption that is the foundation for economic and social development. The annual growth of electricity consumption in the KSA is estimated at 6.4 percent. In order to meet this demand, additional generation plants and reinforcement of distribution and transmission systems are needed. The estimated power generation for the year 2023 is estimated at 59,000 megawatts compared with 25,000 megawatts in 2001. Attempts to find scientific solutions to keep pace with this growing demand necessitate technology transfer and the development of technologies to improve electrical energy generation, transmission, distribution, and utilization. New and renewable energies also show potential to gain a larger share of energy production in the future. High cost and production difficulties related to these technologies still have to be worked out in order to facilitate their more widespread use. Adaptation of these technologies in the KSA will contribute to a balanced and sustainable pace of development in the Kingdom, especially in remote areas. Sustaining the utilization of petroleum oil and gas in the transportation sector is a strategic goal for the Kingdom.
Executive summary
Hence, technologies leading to improved efficiency, fuel economy and reduced impact on the environment need to be developed. This plan is based on input from the users and stakeholders of energy technologies in the Kingdom, including government agencies, universities and industry. The plan received extensive input, review, and comment from stakeholders through 16 small workshops as well as through a comprehensive workshop attended by more than forty participants. The planning processes: Identified the key needs of the Kingdom for energy research and innovation. Assessed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the program, including an analysis of KSA energy publications and patents and an assessment of international research institutes. Defined a mission and vision for the Kingdoms energy program. Defined the key technologies and other program areas needed to address the Kingdoms needs in energy research and innovation. In addition to the technical needs, workshop participants identified a large number of areas where policies need to be changed or barriers removed to facilitate energy technology innovation. These needs include: Policies to facilitate research and development (R&D) collaboration between KACST, universities, and industry. Policy and organizational changes in universities to improve the ability of faculty members to conduct research. Expanded human resources for energy R&D. Improved knowledge exchange with respect to international technology developments. The priority technology areas that emerged from this process are as follows: Renewable Energy Generation: Solar Energy (Resource Assessment, Solar thermal, collectors , Solar Cooling, Solar Desalination, Solar Expanded international collaboration, including cooperation between Saudi universities and international universities. Saudi participation in international standardization bodies. Small business contracting preferences to support innovative small companies.
Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, PV Cell fabrication, PV applications). Wind Energy (Resources Assessment, Grid-connected Conventional Energy Generation: Steam and Gas Turbines (turbine efficiency and blade Micro-Turbines. Waste Heat Extraction Processes. Multi-Generation. Combined Cycle. Electricity Distribution and Transmission: Electrical Transformers (auto/smart transformer, new construction material ,sensors for measurement and protection). Electrical Cables (new insulation material and design Electrical Networks (automation, smart networks, for high voltage). development of software, hardware and sensors for communication in local and wide area networks). Electrical Circuit Breakers; CB (CB for high voltage and extra high voltage; EHV, advanced design and operating mechanism, protection, insulation material. treatment). and stand-alone systems, Wind energy applications).
Executive summary
Energy Conservation and Management: Air Conditioning and Refrigeration( heat pump, central AC, AC cycles, refrigerants, compressor, condenser, energy auditing, control, absorption chillers). Lighting System( efficient lighting, ballast, auditing, Building Envelope (thermal insulation, window The Energy Technology Program consists of a program leadership function, responsible for overall planning, management, and cross-cutting issues, and seven priority technical areas corresponding to the fields above. The Energy Program will be directed by a Program Manager, who will be responsible for the overall execution of the plan. The Energy Technology Research and Innovation Advisory Committee, with stakeholder membership, will oversee the implementation of the plan. It will establish and review performance metrics and provide advice on the portfolio of projects. The Committee will advise the Program Manager and will also report to the National S&T Plan Supervisory Committee, which will oversee all of the Strategic Technology Programs. compact fluorescent lamp, Control). glazing, building shading, building energy management, building automation System). Boiler / Furnace Efficiency. Electric motors. Heat Exchangers(compact heat exchangers). Energy Storage: Super Capacitors. High-Speed Flywheels. Superconducting Magnetic. Advanced Batteries. Thermal Energy Storage. Pumped Storage. Fuel Cell and Hydrogen: Hydrogen Production from Hydrocarbon Fuels. Hydrogen Storage. Proton Exchange Fuel Cell. Solid Oxide Fuel Cell. Direct Methanol Fuel Cell. Stack Fabrication and Testing. Fuel Cell Electrodes. Fuel Cell Membrane. Fuel Cell Catalyst. Combustion: Automotive combustion. Direct Injection. Auto-Ignition/ Homogenous Charge Compression Industrial combustion. Efficiency Enhancement. Emission Reduction. Combustion Modeling. Laser Application. Fuel Technologies.
Ignition.
Introduction
Background
The King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) was directed by its charter of 1986 to propose a national policy for the development of science and technology and to devise the strategy and plans necessary to implement them. In accordance with this charter, KACST launched a comprehensive effort in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy and Planning (MoEP), to develop a long-term national policy on science and technology. In July 2002, the Council of Ministers approved the national policy for science and technology, entitled The Comprehensive, Long-Term, National Science and Technology Policy.
KACST and MoEP embarked on a national effort in collaboration with stakeholders to develop the national plan for science, technology and innovation (STI), which drew up the future direction of science, technology and innovation in the Kingdom, considering the role of KACST as well as that of universities, government, industry, and society at large. The plan encompasses eight major programs, depicted in figure 1, as follows: 1. Strategic and advanced technologies 2. Scientific research and technical development capabilities 3. Transfer, development, and localization of technology 4. Science, technology, and society 5. Scientific and technical human resources 6. Diversifying financial support resources 7. Science, technology, and innovation system 8. Institutional structures for science, technology, and innovation
Introduction
an Hum ces ur Reso
Strategic Technologies
Techn olog Transf ies er & Local izatio n

R Cap & D abi litie s
Society Private Sector

Research & Educational Institutes
Ministries and Governmental Institutes
ial nc ces a Fin sour Re
Ad
m of inis NS tra TI tion P
, ce & ien y, Sc olog n iety ch Te Soc
Re NST gu IP lat ion s
National Science, Technology, & Innovation Plan (NSTIP)
In the Strategic Technologies area, KACST is responsible for 5-year strategic and implementation plans for 11 technologies: 1. Water. 2. Oil & Gas. 3. Petrochemicals. 4. Nanotechnology. 5. Biotechnology. 6. Information Technology. 7. Electronics, Communication, & Photonics. 8. Space and Aeronautics. 9. Energy. 10. Environment. 11. Advanced Materials. Each plan establishes a mission and vision, identifies stakeholders and users, and determines the highest priority technical areas for the Kingdom.
Scope
The scope of this plan is national: it is an energy research and innovation plan for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The plan involves universities, industry, and government stakeholders. KACST has overall responsibility for the development and execution of the plan.
Plan Development Process

The development of this plan began with identifying the stakeholders and users of energy research and innovation in the Kingdom, creating vision and mission statements, and conducting background research on the current position of the Kingdom in energy research and development (R&D) and on the role of other energy research institutes around the world. The plan development methodology is summarized in the following figure.
Introduction
Figure 2: Plan Development Methodology
Methods - Examples: Workshops Interviews Group Analysis SWOT Analysis Gap Analysis
Stakeholders Needs Analysis / SWOT Analysis
Preliminary Analysis
Vision / Mission / Values
Higher Strategy
Perspectives / Themes
Strategic Alignment Framework
Objectives
Tools - Examples: Brainstorming Questionaires Mind Maps Decision-making Tech
Strategic Management
Measures Performance Indicators Targets Performance Evaluation
Cascading
(Balanced Scorecard)
Projects
Tools & Techniques defined in Portfolio & Program Management Standards (PMS)
Projects Portfolio
Program Core Plans Scope / Time / Cost / Quality / Integration
Program Management
Support Plans HR / Commu / Risk / Procu
Core & Support Plans
Project Management
The plan received extensive input, review, and comment from the stakeholders through conducting 16 small workshops in addition to a comprehensive workshop attended by more than forty participants. This workshop focused on reviewing the elements of the strategic planning activities resulting from the preceding
workshops. These elements include the SWOT analysis, vision and mission statements, and technology areas of importance to the Kingdom & other countries. The workshop was also used to brainstorm R&D projects in the selected energy fields. The workshop participant names are listed in Appendix A.
Strategic Context
KSA Energy R&D Needs
The following key needs of the Kingdom were identified through workshops with the stakeholders:
The demand for energy in Saudi Arabia will continue to be extremely high. The current population of Saudi Arabia is about 27 million. The annual population growth rate is approximately 2.9% that represents one of the highest in the world. The Kingdoms energy sector faces great challenges due to the growing demand in electricity consumption. The annual demand growth of electricity, which is a major foundation for any economic or social development, is estimated at 6.4 percent. In order to meet this demand, electricity companies are required to make substantial investments in order to increase the generation capacity as well as to upgrade and reinforce the distribution and transmission system. The power generation capacity required in the year 2023 is estimated at 59000 megawatts, compared with 25000 megawatts in 2001. There is a critical need to provide energy to the Kingdoms remote areas where renewable energy can be highly competitive in power generation. Connecting these areas to the conventional grid is prohibitively expensive. Furthermore, the KSA is embarking on a new age of industrialization. This new direction manifests itself in gigantic government-sponsored national construction projects such as Economic Cities and Industrial Clusters. In addition, industrial activity is expected to rise significantly due to the Kingdoms joining of the World Trade Organization. New industrial and development installations are therefore expected to add to the demand for energy and require new solutions for generation, distribution, conservation, and management.
10
Strategic Context
It is also of interest to the Kingdom to support and improve the use of petroleum in the transportation sector. This sector utilizes nearly 60 percent of the worlds oil production. Hence, programs to enhance the energy efficiency, improve the generation, and reduce the environmental impact of fuels need to be emphasized. Moreover, the Kingdom needs to keep pace with world advances in energy related technologies to be a technology producer, rather than just a user, in this field. In addition to the technical needs, workshop participants identified a large number of areas where policies need to be changed or barriers removed. These needs include: Policies to facilitate R&D collaboration between KACST, universities, and industry. Policy and organizational changes in universities to improve the ability of faculty members to conduct research. Expanded human resources for energy R&D. Improved knowledge of international technology developments. Expanded international collaboration, including cooperation between Saudi universities and world universities. Saudi participation in international standardization bodies. Small business contracting preferences to support innovative small companies. This plan is focused on the technical needs but also includes steps to address the non-technical needs, although some of these are primarily the responsibilities of other organizations.
Stakeholders Roles
The stakeholders for the Energy Research and Innovation Program include KACST, KSA universities, various independent or specialized research institutes, other government agencies, and private companies. The following table shows the roles of each of the stakeholders in the program.
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Strategic Context
Table 1: Stakeholders and Their Roles Stakeholders Role Plan, coordinate and manage the program Conduct applied research, technology transfer and prototype applications development KACST Manage and participate in national projects Provide support for university and industrial participation in national projects Provide and manage national research facilities Provide advice and services to government on science and technology Create new basic and applied scientific knowledge Universities Train students in science and engineering Host and participate in Technology Innovation Centers Participate in collaborative projects Independent or Government Specialized Research Centers Create new applied scientific knowledge Participate in collaborative projects Operation and implementation of environmental projects Ministries and Government Agencies Provide input to program on government R&D needs Reduce regulatory and procedural barriers to R&D and innovation Support R&D in universities and industry Develop and commercialize products and processes resulting from the program Private Sector Communicate company needs to program Support and participate in collaborative R&D projects. Support and participate in the Technology Innovation Centers
Analysis of Comparable Energy R&D Institutes

As part of the background work for this plan, the planning team reviewed several other energy technology research laboratories/centers around the world, selected to include a mix of government supported laboratories with functions similar to that of the energy program. These centers include: Research Institute for Sustainable Energy (RISE),
Australia. Centre for Energy Technology (CET), Finland. Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), Netherlands. Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), South Korea. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), U.S. Department of Energy,United States.
1
Strategic Context
The research foci and scope of the five institutions reflect interesting and useful approaches regarding strategies and options for development of energy research and related technology. From a national planning perspective, the consideration of national government research institutes (United States, the Netherlands, and South Korea) and university-based national institutes (Australia and Finland) provides a continuum of policy and institutional understanding in regard to the strategic role and activities of research institutes. These institutes are working in a range of technical areas similar to those considered for this plan, including: Renewable energy. Methods to produce cleaner fossil fuels. Technologies and processes to improve energy efficiency. Development of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. A full description of these laboratories programs can be found in a separate document.
1
researchers and other KSA stakeholders who provided detailed lists of keyword terms that were used to query publication and patent databases. The KSA energy program identified seven sub-topics: renewable energy generation, conventional energy generation, electricity energy distribution and transferring, energy conservation and management, energy storage, fuel cell and hydrogen, and combustion. The scope of this analysis was restricted to only recent publication (2006 - 2007) and patent (2002 - 2006) activity in these fields. There is general agreement that publications and patents strongly correlate with scientific research capacity, although publication and patent counts alone do not fully represent the quality or scope of research. Nonetheless, publication and patent activity have long been used as indicators for knowledge creation and research output. 3 Several indicators are presented below. These include forward citations, which are the frequency at which publications and patents are cited by others and are an indicator of impact, and co-authoring relationships, which are an indicator of scientific collaboration. Together, these indicators provide measures of collaboration, globalization and impact of science and technology research in fields related to the KSA energy program.
Analysis of Energy Publications and Patents

Energy is a broad field encompasing many different research areas and enabling technologies, such as: mechanical engineering, thermodynamics, chemical engineering, applied physics, and environmental sciences. The overall field, energy, as well as subtopics, were defined in close consultation with KACST
1 Strategic Review: Energy Technology. Report prepared by SRI International for KACST. 2 ISI Web of Science and Delphion were queried for scientific publication and U.S. patent application data, respectively. The ISI Web of Science is a database of peerreviewed articles in major scientific journals from around the world. Delphion is a searchable database of global patent activity, including the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The USPTO is one of the worlds major granters of patents and it has been argued that the U.S. market is so large that most important inventions from around the world are patented there. 3 Seminal research in the use of publications as a measure of scientific productivity includes A.J. Lotka, The frequency distribution of scientific productivity, Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, vol 16 (1926); D. Price, Little Science, Big Science, (New York: Columbia university Press, 1963); J.R. Cole and S Cole, Social Stratification in Science, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1973); J. Gaston, The reward system in British and American science, (New York: John Wiley (1978); and M.F. Fox, Publication productivity among scientists: a critical review, Social Studies of Science, vol 13, 1983.
13
Strategic Context
Global Energy Publication Activity Between 2006 and 2007, there were 17117 articles published worldwide in energy fields related to KSA energy priorities. The United States was the worlds
4
China was second, producing 2430 articles, followed by Japan and Germany, with 1522 and 1061 articles respectively. Saudi Arabia was the 43rd largest producer of publications, producing 48 articles in ISI-indexed journals. Figure 3 shows the number of publications produced by selected countries over this time period.5
largest producer of related articles, generating 3770 articles over this time period. The Peoples Republic of Figure 3: Energy Publications (2006 - 2007)
Russia Turkey Greece Spain 583 South Korea 943 Australia USA 3770 Germany 1061 Sweden India 616 France 81 Taiwan 569
Saudi Arabia
Peoples R China 430
Japan 15
UK 1041
Italy 681 Brazil Poland
Canada 76
Iran
4 Throughout this report, environment refers only to the subset of environment-related fields defined by the KSA environment program. 5 A publication is assigned to a country if any of the publications authors affiliations are located in that country. Because publications often have multiple authors, a single publication may be assigned to multiple countries. Aggregate figures, such as total global publication output, count each publication only once, but adding up sub-totals may yield a result larger than the reported total due to multiple counting.
14
Strategic Context
Table 2: Energy Sub-Topics (2005 - 2007)
Sub-Topic
Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Conservation and Management Renewable Energy Generation Combustion Electricity Energy Distribution and Transferring Conventional Energy Generation Energy Storage
Publications
461 377 3167 2242 1964 1509 1045
As shown in table 2, Fuel cell and hydrogen R&D accounts for the highest number of energy related publications (4621) followed by: energy conservation and management (3727), renewable energy generation (3167), combustion (2242), electricity distribution and transferring (1964), conventional energy generation (1509), and energy storage (1045). Benchmark Country Publication Impact Average publication impact is calculated as the number of citations of articles from a particular country divided Table 3: Publication Impact (2006 -2007) Country Netherlands USA Germany South Korea UK Publications 300 3770 1061 943 1041
by the total number of articles published by authors from that country. For instance, a country that published 50 articles that were cited 100 times would have an average publication impact of two. Between 2006 and 2007, the Netherlands had the highest average publication impact of all countries at 1.63 followed by the United States (1.57), Germany (1.34), and South Korea (1.22). The average publication impact for Saudi Arabia was 0.29 with 14 citations of 48 articles. Table 3 below presents publication and citation counts for benchmark countries.6
Total Citations 490 5906 143 1155 13
Average Publication Impact 1.63 1.57 1.34 1.22 1.17
6 Benchmark countries include global leaders in terms of total energy publication output in addition to a list of specific countries provided by KACST.
15
Strategic Context
Country Japan Peoples R. China Australia Finland UAE Egypt Saudi Arabia Algeria Jordan Tunisia Bahrain Kuwait Oman Syria Publications 15 430 88 15 13 93 48 45 6 54 10 6 8 4 Total Citations 1770 530 93 106 9 3 14 1 6 1 1 0 0 Average Publication Impact 1.16 1.04 1.02 0.85 0.69 0.34 0.29 0.27 0.23 0.22 0.10 0.08 0.00 0.00
Energy Research Organizations The energy publication dataset included nearly 40,000 different authors from thousands of research organizations in 119 countries. As shown in table 4, the three institutions producing the largest number of publications related to energy R&D are the Chinese Academy of Sciences (502), Tsing Hua University (249), and the Indian Institute of Technology (211). Shanghai Jiao Tong University is the leading publisher of energy conservation and management related articles while Xian Jiaotong University is the leading producer of electricity energy distribution and transmission articles and the Indian Institute of Technology is the leading producer of conventional energy generation related articles.
16
Table 4: Global Energy Research Organizations (2006 - 2007)
Strategic Context
Institution
Total Publication
Average Impact
Fuel Cell and Hydrogen 5 106 36 54 3 18 71 37 3 9 17 56 31 4 53 1 7 17 1 16 4 9 30 4 18 1 6 5 16 11 17 36 17 18 37 9 7 11 9 4 51 7 7 1 30 45 15 33 7 19 7 13 5 7 10 10 16 90 3 31 10 60 36 5 30 5 8 13 6 1 6 6 10 8 9 6 46 3 30 0 18 59 14 45 3 3 31 0 13 5 10 1 4 7 6 3 4 7 9 8
Energy Conservation and Management
Electricity Renewable Conventional Distribution Energy Energy Combustion Energy and Storage Generation Generation Transmission
Chinese Acad Sci 0.88 0.38 0.58 0.64 0.55 3.37 0.28 1.25 0.99 1.25 2.18 1.90 1.00 1.09
50
1.56
Tsing Hua University
49
Indian Inst Technol
11
Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ
00
Univ Sci & Technol China
145
Xian Jiaotong Univ
137
Penn State University
134
Russian Acad Sci
13
Univ Texas
131
Univ Illinois
115
CNRS
114
Natl Inst Adv Ind Sci & Technol Seto
113
Univ Calif Berkeley
110
Tokyo Institute Technol
109
Seoul Natl Univ
104
17
Strategic Context
International Collaboration and Publication Impact In this study, international collaboration is calculated as the average number of countries represented per publication, based on authors addresses. Figure 4 plots a Figure 4: Energy Collaboration and Publication Impact (2006 - 2007)

countrys level of international collaboration (horizontal axis) against the average impact of its publications (vertical axis).
1.8
1.6
Netherlands USA USA Germany South Korea UK Japan Peoples R. China Japan Germany UK Australia South Korea Netherlands Australia Finland United Arab Emirates Egypt Tunisia Saudi Arabia Algeria Jordan Kuwait Algeria Jordan Bahrain United Arab Emirates Bahrain Oman 2 2.5 Oman Syria
1.4
1.2
Average Impact
Peoples R. China
0.8
Finland
0.6
0.4 Saudi Arabia 0.2 Syria 0 0.5 1
Egypt
Tunisia
Kuwait 1.5
KSA Collaboration Activity As shown in table 5, authors affiliated with KSA institutions collaborated on a significant number of articles with authors from: Canada (4 publications), Egypt (2), and
the United States (2). KSA-affiliated authors collaborated on one article with authors from: Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Singapore, Tunisia, and the United Kingdom.
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Strategic Context
KSA Collaboration Activity As shown in table 5, authors affiliated with KSA institutions collaborated on a significant number of articles with authors from: Canada (4 publications), Egypt (2), and Table 5: KSA Collaborators (2002 - 2006) Country Canada Egypt United States Ireland Italy Jordan Singapore Tunisia United Kingdom Energy Journals Table 6 presents journals with a significant level of publication activity related to KSA energy sub-fields from 2006-2007. Table 6: Energy Journals (2006 - 2007) Journal APPLIED THERMAL ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REFRIGERATION-REVUE INTERNATIONALE DU FROID Energy Conservation ENERGY AND BUILDINGS ENERGY CONVERSION AND MANAGEMENT BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER ENERGY INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH ENERGY POLICY APPLIED ENERGY Publications 15 161 13 13 94 88 60 53 49 46 Number of Publications 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 the United States (2). KSA-affiliated authors collaborated on one article with authors from: Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Singapore, Tunisia, and the United Kingdom.
19
Strategic Context
Journal Electricity Distribution and Transmission IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON DIELECTRICS AND ELECTRICAL INSULATION IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEMS RESEARCH ENERGY POLICY IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ELECTRICAL POWER & ENERGY SYSTEMS IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS OF THE ASME Conventional Energy Generation FOR GAS TURBINES AND POWERPublications 158 95 93 87 55 8 6 5 5 5 94 68 65 54 43 41 34 31 9 6
APPLIED THERMAL ENGINEERING ENERGY JOURNAL OF TURBOMACHINERY-TRANSACTIONS OF THE ASME ENERGY POLICY JOURNAL OF POWER SOURCES ENERGY CONVERSION AND MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS PART A-JOURNAL OF POWER AND ENERGY JOURNAL OF PROPULSION AND POWER
0
Strategic Context
Journal PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMBUSTION INSTITUTE COMBUSTION AND FLAME ENERGY & FUELS FUEL Combustion COMBUSTION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS PART D-JOURNAL OF AUTOMOBILE ENGINEERING ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS OF THE ASME FOR GAS TURBINES AND POWERPublications 143 130 86 84 61 50 48 43 38 37
APPLIED THERMAL ENGINEERING
Energy Patent Activity Between 2002 and 2006, there were 6029 energy related patent applications filed with the United States Patent Office (USPTO). As shown in table 7, the majority of these (3208) listed at least one inventor from the United Table 7: Energy Patents (2002-2006) States. Other countries with a significant number of inventors include: Japan (1069 applications), Germany (671 applications), and the United Kingdom (310 applications).
Country
Renewable Conventional Energy Energy Generation Generation 556 18 11 41 30 16 156 40 317 3 16 5 6
Electricity Energy Dist. and Transferring 388 58 9 10 33 16 0
Energy Fuel Cons. Energy Cell and and Storage Hydrogen Mgmt. 9 8 4 3 10 0 0 44 3 3 3 3 0 83 158 39 8 9 0 3
Combustion
Total
United States Japan Germany United Kingdom Canada South Korea Netherlands
316 65 167 15 31 4 0
308 1069 671 310 55 49 5
1
Strategic Context
Country
Renewable Conventional Energy Energy Generation Generation 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 9 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Electricity Energy Dist. and Transferring 9 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Energy Fuel Cons. Energy Cell and and Storage Hydrogen Mgmt. 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Combustion
Total
Australia Finland China Saudi Arabia Algeria Bahrain Egypt Jordan Kuwait Oman Syria Tunisia UAE
0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
5 0 15 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
While the majority of energy related patent applications are defined as individually owned patent applications (4174 applications) by the United States Patent Office, institutions are designated as the patent assignee on a significant number of applications. These institutions have established track-records as innovators in energy technology fields related to KSA strategic priorities and could be targets for Table 8: Leading Energy Patent Assignees (2002 - 2006) USTPO Assignee Individually Owned Patents General Electric Company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation Rolls-Royce PLC
future collaborative outreach efforts. As shown in table 8, General Electric Company is listed as the patent assignee on 173 energy-related patent applications followed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (90 applications), Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation (86 applications), and Rolls-Royce PLC (64 applications).
No. of Patents Apps. 4174 173 90 86 64

Strategic Context
SWOT Analysis for KSA Energy Research and Innovation Program
This section presents a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis of the Saudi Arabia Energy Technology Program relative to achieving its vision. In a SWOT analysis, terms are defined as follows: Strengths: attributes of the organization that are helpful to achieving the objectives. Weaknesses: attributes of the organization that are harmful to achieving the objectives. Table 9: SWOT Analysis Helpful Internal Strengths Financial and moral support from leadership. Qualified researchers and experts with high motivation to form an active research core. Ability to own some energy technologies. Harmful Weakness Lack of team spirit and teamwork among some stakeholders. Lack of proper incentives. Current governmental bureaucratic regulations and rules. Insufficient information and information technology infrastructure. External Opportunities Attracting qualified researchers, experts. Encouraging local and foreign investments. Ability to produce energy technologies at minimum cost through governmental support. Enormous increase in electricity demand in the Kingdom. Threats Difficulties of transferring some energy technologies. Deficiency of environmental protection regulations. Lack of protection for local technology products from global competition, especially after joining WTO. Opportunities: external conditions that are helpful to achieving the objectives. Threats: external conditions that are harmful to achieving the objectives. Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the organization while opportunities and threats are defined as external to the organization. For the purpose of this analysis, the organization is the Saudi Energy Technology Program, including KACST, universities, other government agencies, and companies. The following table shows the main identified SWOT attributes.
3
Higher Strategy
This section provides the vision for the Kingdoms Energy Technology Program, and defines the mission, values, and strategic goals for the program.
Vision
The vision for the Energy Technology Program is to be an international pioneering and referential program in adaptation and development of energy technologies through advanced working systems.
Mission
To build an advanced collaborative system for adapting and developing energy technologies through promoting an effective research and development culture, formulating comprehensive and competitive solutions, and developing expert human resources. This will ensure the optimal utilization of available resources, preserve the environment, and create new investment opportunities. Our higher purpose is to support the national economy and sustained national development.
Program Values and Culture

To achieve excellence, the program will develop an internal culture through both the sponsorship of its leadership and commitment of its operational teams, based on the following values: Excellence of work. Professional integrity and ethical behavior. Openness and transparency. Commitment to achieving objectives.
4
Higher Strategy
Support of creativity and innovation. Teamwork and collaboration.

The strategic goals of the Energy Technology Program are aligned with goals and objectives of the National Policy for Science and Technology and the key needs of the Kingdom that are compatible with and can be acted upon at this program level. Accordingly, the following strategically-aligned goals are selected for the program to work on for the next 5 years: 1- Efficiently exploiting national energy resources. 2- Supporting national self dependence in critical energy technologies. 3- Supporting the local energy industry to attain development and growth with technology solutions that facilitate new product development, improve production efficiency, price/value efficiency, environmental protection , especially in view of the rapidly rising demands for electrical and other forms of energy due to population growth, industrialization and globalization. 4- Developing innovative technologies for special needs that cannot be satisfied efficiently or economically through existing systems. For example, utilization of renewable energy technologies for remote areas. 5- Transferring, adapting and developing technologies for local users and markets through business models that promote creation and maximization of employment and investment opportunities, as well as economic diversification and competitiveness. 6- Supporting societal and cultural development towards optimal exploitation of technology and transformation from consuming to producing culture. 7- Promoting the national image and stature in science and technology. These goals are the direct program goals which indirectly serve higher national goals such as supporting the national economy, sustained development, selfreliance and security. Furthermore, these strategic goals provide a basis for defining technology area selection criteria and program implementation objectives.
5
Technology Areas
Selection process
Initial List An initial list of technology areas in the energy related fields was developed by stakeholders, taking into account the programs strategic goals and the higher strategy. The initial list was entered into a selection matrix that included selection criteria, weights, and scores. This led to a shorter list of priority technologies.
Selection Criteria The program technology areas are selected based on selection criteria developed through stakeholders workshops in alignment with the programs strategic goals, while also considering the programs mission. The selection criteria are as follows: Need for self dependence in technology/area. Ability to generate employment opportunities. Ease of transferring technology. Ability to generate investment opportunities. Possibility for further development of technology. Possibility to reduce electricity generation costs. Low technology adaptation & development cost. Possibility to reduce energy waste. Availability of local qualified human resources. Contribution to environmental protection.
Selected Technology Areas

The above selection criteria in addition to a weighing mechanism were used to narrow the initial list of the energy technology areas to those listed below: Renewable Energy Generation: Solar Energy (resource assessment, solar thermal, solar collectors , solar cooling, solar desalination, solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, PV cell
6
Technology Areas
fabrication, PV applications). Wind Energy (resources assessment, grid-connected Conventional Energy Generation: Steam and Gas Turbines (turbine efficiency and Micro-Turbines. Waste Heat Extraction Processes. Multi-Generation. Combined Cycle. Electricity Distribution and Transmission: Electrical Transformers (auto/smart transformer, new construction material ,sensors for measurement and protection). Electrical Cables (new insulation material and design Electrical Networks (automation, smart network, for high voltage). development of software, hardware and sensors for communication in local and wide area network). Electrical Circuit Breakers; CB (CB for high voltage and extra high voltage; EHV, advanced design and operating mechanism, protection, insulation material. Energy Conservation and Management: Air conditioning and Refrigeration( heat pump, central AC, AC cycles, refrigerants, compressor, condenser, energy auditing, control, absorption chillers). Lighting System (efficient lighting, ballast, auditing, Building Envelope (thermal insulation, window compact fluorescent lamp, Control). glazing, building shading, building energy management, building automation System). Boiler / Furnace Efficiency. Electric motors. Heat Exchangers(compact heat exchangers). Combustion: Automotive combustion. Direct Injection. Auto-Ignition / Homogenous Charge Compression Industrial Combustion. Efficiency Enhancement . Emission Reduction. Combustion Modeling. Laser Application. Fuel Technologies. Fuel Cell and Hydrogen: Hydrogen Production from Hydrocarbon Fuels. Hydrogen Storage. Proton Exchange Fuel Cell. Solid Oxide Fuel Cell. Direct Methanol Fuel Cell. Stack Fabrication and Testing. Fuel Cell Electrodes. Fuel Cell Membrane. Fuel Cell Catalyst. blades treatment). and stand-alone systems, wind energy applications). Energy Storage: Super Capacitors. High-Speed Flywheels. Superconducting Magnetic. Advanced Batteries. Thermal Energy Storage. Pumped Storage.
Ignition.
7
Program Structure
Work in each of the technology areas is achieved through a program structure that starts with identifying specific implementation objectives program within core three major domains/perspectives: operations throughout the objectives, indicators and projects definition process (balanced scorecard development process).
infrastructure,
and value delivery. Performance indicators (and target levels) are defined for each objective and then projects are identified to satisfy the indicators. Stakeholders participated
Program Objectives
To achieve the programs strategy and strategic goals, the following implementation-oriented objectives were defined by stakeholders: Infrastructure Objectives Develop Human Resources. Develop Organizational Culture. Develop Effective Financial Management. Develop Work Processes and Systems. Provide Laboratories and Equipments. Develop Knowledge Management System. Core Operations Objectives Select Technologies. Establish Strategic Partnerships. Develop Technologies: Conduct Fundamental Research. Conduct Applied Research. Build Pilot Plants. Localize Technology: Conduct Localization Research & Studies. Build Localization Pilot Plants.
8
Program Structure
Transfer Technology: Assess Ready Technologies. Percentage of Applied Research Resulting in adapted Technologies. Percentage of By-Product Technologies Resulting Value Delivery Objectives Work with the Incubators. Work with the Technology Innovation Centers. Work with the Program Beneficiaries: Provide Cost/Value Efficiency. Provide Job Opportunities. Provide Investment Opportunities. Support Environmental Protection. Use National Resources Effectively. Support National Goals: National Self-Reliance and Security. Continuous Development. Economic Growth. from adapted Technologies. Percentage of Adaptation Pilot Plants Leading to Production Line or Solution. Percentage of ready technologies leading to production lines or solutions. Number of ready technologies passed on to Adaptation and development. Percentage of Technologies, Prototypes and Pilot Plants Adopted by Incubators from Total Offered. Percentage of Pre-Incubation and Production Prototypes Developed with Technology Innovation Centers (TICs)to Total Offered.
Program Projects Categories Performance Indicators for Objectives

Performance indicators (measures) were defined by stakeholders for each of the program objectives mentioned above. Major performance indicators include: Percentage of HR Requirements Fulfilled. Program Return on Investment. Level of Strategic Objectives Fulfillment by Projects and Work Processes. Size of Used Knowledge Assets (Documented and Acquired). Level of Strategic Objectives Fulfillment by Selected Technologies. Percentage of Activated Strategic Partnerships to Total Required. Number of Innovations Leading to New Applications through Fundamental Research. Percentage of Applied Research Resulting in Prototypes, Pilot Plants or Applied Solutions. Percentage of Pilot Plants Leading to Production Line or Solution. To fulfill the program objectives and achieve satisfactory levels in the performance indicators for each objective, initial program projects were identified by stakeholders, which can be divided into the three main categories outlined below. These projects will be subject to evaluation during implementation and possible cancellation or replacement, if not satisfactory (portfolio management): Infrastructure Projects: these are projects to plan, establish and manage the infrastructure required for the success and efficiency of the program including its human capital, knowledge capital, organizational capital, financial capital and other systems / resources. Research & Development Projects: these are projects to develop new knowledge and technology in each of the selected technology areas. Value Delivery Projects: these are projects to assist the program in delivering value to beneficiaries or in working with incubators and Technology Innovation Centers (TICs).
9
Operational Plans
As highlighted in other sections, the energy program comprises a large number of projects including energyrelated research and development projects, infrastructure projects and value delivery projects. Success of the program will be largely and critically dependent on success in accomplishing these projects. At the program level, higher level functions are addressed, but of the most importance is the support of individual projects. This section discusses the measures and functions that will be undertaken at these two levels: project and program.
Project Level To maintain a high success rate in achieving the programs objectives, the following actions will be taken: 1. Achieving the required maturity level in the Program in managing and delivering projects as assessed by international standards. 2. Establishing a Project Management Office (PMO) structure with multiple tiers including program level, organization level (stakeholders / implementers) and project level PMOs. 3. Developing an effective unified process/methodology for project management to be used by the projects. This process could be customized as necessary by individual projects, but will generally adhere to this accepted standard. The unified process will cover all core project functions including scope, time, cost and quality management as well as project facilitating functions such as human resources, risk, communication, and vendor management. 4. Capacity building of project managers and supporting them with implementing PM functions. 5. Ensuring that the knowledge management function identified among the programs infrastructure objectives takes into account learning and building knowledge assets across projects, both sequentially and in parallel, and in both technical and project management domains. 6. Providing resource utilization efficiencies, such as pooling among projects
30
Operational Plans
including human resources, facilities, equipment, labs and automated tools. Program Level At the program level, a fundamental question that will guide decisions and actions is why is program level management needed? Areas in which management at the program level is needed include: Portfolio management provides benefits that cannot be obtained by managing the multiple projects individually. Examples of benefits include: Actions with effects across several projects; positive effects to be sought Decisions that can be exposed and handled only with a program Risks that can be best addressed at a shared program level. A Benefits Statement will be compiled for the Program and a Benefits Governance that will be provided by the Program to the higher national level(s) to ensure program performance and progress monitoring. Management of Stakeholders, to include: Higher level stakeholders that cannot be managed/coordinated at the Assisting project managers, especially startups, in managing their project Covering stakeholder interdependencies across projects. individual project level. stakeholders. and negative effects to be avoided. perspective.
Monitoring and Management scheme will be applied.
One of the most important aspects of program stakeholder management will be to facilitate, realize, and manage the successful and effective change that the program should produce. The following sections provide specific examples of concerns that will be addressed at program level through the: portfolio management plan, technology transfer plan, quality management plan, human resources plan, communications plan, and risk management plan.
Technology Transfer Plan

The energy research program will follow internationally recognized best practices in technology transfer. Key elements of the program that are designed to facilitate technology transfer are:
31
Operational Plans
Involvement of users in the program design: this occurs through user participation in the planning workshop and user involvement in the energy advisory committee. It is well recognized that user involvement in the research design leads to research and outcomes that are more likely to meet the needs of users, and thus are more likely to lead to successful innovation. Procedures will be developed for disclosing and National programs focused on the development of advanced pilot application projects: these projects involve KACST, government agencies, universities, and industry. Knowledge is transferred to companies in the course of the project. This is a proven method for developing technologies that serve a need and can be transferred easily to government or commercial users. Use of university/industry centers as a major research mechanism throughout the plan: industry involvement in these centers through the provision of advice and funding will encourage university research to be focused on user needs, thereby increasing the likelihood of technology transfer. These centers will also transfer knowledge to industry though the training and graduation of students (who have been trained on problems of interest to industry), who then take jobs in companies or form their own companies. Linkage between the energy program and technology business incubators and other programs will aid the start-up of new energy technology companies. To achieve the goals of the program, KACST will need to hire or develop additional program managers with the skills to lead national programs. To do this KACST will need additional flexibility with respect to compensation packages, speed of hiring, and ability to hire international staff. Stakeholders will need additional researchers and engineers with the skills to develop innovative technologies. As part of the activities in this plan, the energy technology program will: Work with the other agencies to improve the quality managing potential conflicts of interest among reviewers. In many cases, some international experts will be used on review panels to reduce possible conflicts of interest and to provide an independent external assessment. university-based research centers and projects. Annual reviews of technology development projects to ensure that milestones are being met. Periodic (every 5 years) subprogram evaluations conducted by a review committee supported by an experienced evaluator.
Human Resources Plan

As noted in the SWOT analysis, human resources are a critical barrier for the success of the energy research and innovation program. The availability of skilled people, including both researchers and technical managers and leaders, is likely to limit the growth and success of KSA Energy Technology Program. The plan will require substantial numbers of energy professionals, including additional researchers, technical managers, and technical leaders at KACST, at universities and at companies. A central task of the program management function will be to address this issue.
Quality Management Plan

The Energy Technology Program will follow international best practices in quality management for science and technology programs. Elements of this plan include: Advisory committee review of the overall program design and budget. Competitive, peer-reviewed selection processes for
3
Operational Plans
of undergraduate energy technology education, especially at regional universities. Work with new universities to develop research and education programs that especially match the Kingdoms energy technology research needs. Work to expand the contribution of women to energy research technology. Work to change policies to allow more international hiring, to bring specialized expertise to the Kingdom. Support training for researchers to become R&D managers and leaders. At the undergraduate and especially graduate level, this plan is designed to help increase the numbers of energy researchers through its emphasis on university-industry centers. These centers are designed to train new students with research and innovation skills that are needed by research organizations and industry.
Communications Management Plan

The purpose of the communications management plan is to provide appropriate information to the program participants and stakeholders. One element of the communications plan is to improve communication throughout the KSA energy research community and to expand collaboration among members of the community. Aspects of this include: There will be a public website with information on program goals, accomplishments, funding opportunities, and other news. Periodic workshops will be held with users and stakeholders to define future program needs. Requests for proposals (for university centers, grants, and pilot application development programs) will be announced to the public. The program advisory board will review and comment on the program, and advisory board reports will be made public on the website. The program will sponsor workshops, conferences, and professional society activities to expand communication and networking throughout the community. Presentations on the program will be made at national and international conferences.
33
Operational Plans
Another element of the plan is to define appropriate communications within the management structure of the plan. It is especially important that information about risks or difficulties in the program, such as delays, lack of resources, or non-attainment of goals be rapidly communicated to higher levels of management. surprised by bad news. A general principle is that management should never be development of other technical approaches. A way to address this risk is through: Designing programs based on carefully considered market needs. Monitoring international technology and market developments. Continual readjustment of plans in responses to changes in the environment. Financial risk is the risk of funding shortfalls or of cost overruns. The way to address risks in this area is through careful program planning and monitoring, and early identification of possible cost overruns. Another financial risk is due to changes in the plan or funding due to political or policy changes. It will be important for the plan management to maintain communication with policy One source of technical risk to attainment of technical goals is, as described above, the lack of adequate human resources to implement the program. Approaches to managing this risk are: Adopting policies to attract people with the needed skills. This may involve raising salaries and recruiting internationally. Delaying or phasing in some program elements if people cannot be hired. Expanding the pool of people with needed skills through education and training programs, such as university water research centers (see human resources plan). Another cause of technical risk is overly ambitious goals. To address this risk the program should have an independent review of technical goals to ensure they are feasible, and to adjust technical goals if milestones are not being met. Market risk is that projects, while technically successful, do not lead to successful products because of poorly understood or changing market conditions, such as the leaders to ensure they are aware of the accomplishments of the program and to get early warning of any policy changes that may affect the program.
Risk Management Plan

The program presented here is an ambitious program that will challenge the capabilities of the Kingdom. There are several types of risks that could prevent attainment of program goals, including technical risks, market risks, and financial risks.
34
Implementation of the Plan

Within KACST, the energy program manager will be responsible for the overall execution of the plan. Some portions of the plan may be managed by other parts of KACST.
Many aspects of the plan represent new functions, especially in developing and managing national technology programs that include industry and universities and may involve international collaborations. A major task for the first year of the program will be, in addition to detailed program planning, for KACST to acquire or develop the necessary skills through hiring or training. Although it is critical to rapidly start new research programs, it is essential to build the skills necessary to lead and develop these programs, and to plan them carefully. The Energy Technology Advisory Committee will oversee the implementation of the plan. It will meet approximately four times a year and review progress in the program. Key performance indicators for each objective were described previously. The advisory committee will also sponsor and oversee studies of emerging areas of energy, to serve as the basis for developing new program areas. This plan is intended to be a dynamic document that will be updated at least annually and more frequently if required. In addition to the advisory committee input, it is expected that workshops with the research community, users, industry and other stakeholders will also contribute to both a continual evolution of the plan as well as a stronger energy research and innovation network in the Kingdom.
35
Appendix A: Plan Development Process

The plan received extensive input, review, and comment from the stakeholder participants through conducting 17 one-day workshops. The workshop participants names are listed in the following table. The level of to participation another. in the workshops varied from one workshop Nearly all the participants attended the comprehensive one-day stakeholder workshop on October 29, 2007.
Table A-1: Stakeholders Participants Name Dr. Hani A. Al-Ansari Dr. Bader A. HabebAllah Dr. Omer Al-Rabghi Dr. Ibrahim O. HabebAllah Dr. Khalid A. Al-Shaibani Dr. Ali M. Somali Eng. Tarek A. Al-Naem Eng. Salih A. Al-Amri Eng. Abdullah A. Al-Katheri Eng. Ahmed A. Al-Hassoun Eng. Abdulhamid Al-Mansour Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Hariri Dr.Ibrahim Al-Mofeez Dr. Sami Al-Sani Dr. Khalid Al-Amar Saudi Electricity Company Turbines Technology Company District Cooling Co. King Faisal University Saudi Aramco Affiliation King Saud University King Abdulaziz University King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals King Faisal University
King Saud University
36

Name Dr.Khalid Al-Salem Zeyad Al-Shaibani Dr.Yusef Al-Saqeer Dr. Mansour Al-Hazza Eng. Ahmad Al-Amri Eng. Abdulrhman Al-Areefi Eng. Mohammed Alghanam Eng. Abdullah Alajaln Eng. Ibrahim Altasan Eng. Mansour Alinzi Eng. Fayz Al-Jabri Eng. Habeeb Al-Mobarak Eng. Homoud Al-Madeen Dr. Majed Alhazmi Dr. Ahmed AlGhamdi Dr. Abdullah Aseri Dr. Mohammed Al-Beroni Dr. Abulghani Mansour Dr. Naif M. Al-Abbadi Dr. Yousef M. Al-Yousef Dr. Hassan A. AbaOud Eng. Saud A. Bin Juwair Eng. Gazi N. Al-Motairi Dr. Mohammed S. Samai Dr. Fozi A. Al-Azhari Dr. AbdullAh A. Al-Musa Dr. Mazen A. Ba Abad Dr. Hussam I. Khonkar King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology Umm Alqura University King Abdulaziz University Electricity and Co-generation Regulatory Authority Saline Water Conversion Corporation Aleasa Air Conditioning Co King Saud University Affiliation
Ministry of Water and Electricity
37

Initial Portfolio Formation The R&D projects suggested for the program were entered into a project portfolio formation process to form an initial portfolio (subset) based on best utilization of available resources to achieve the programs strategic objectives. This included the following main phases: Phase 1: Evaluate vs. Strategy In this phase, only projects aligning with the Programs strategic goals were selected. These projects were distributed into strategic groups (buckets), and the total available resources were distributed/allocated initially to the strategic groups based on strategic significance. The program adopted a Project Distribution Matrix technique for defining the strategic groups. Nine groups resulted from the intersection of two dimensions having three elements each. These are: Strategic Technology Paths: Development. Adaptation. Transfer. Research & Development Types: Basic Research. Applied Research / Pilot Plants. Product Development / Added Value.
Phase 2: Prioritization for Resources In this phase, projects competing for the same resources within a group were prioritized from a resource-related viewpoint. The Program adopted a paired comparison technique for this purpose. Accordingly, nine paired comparison tables were developed. Projects were selected to the portfolio one-by-one starting from the top of the prioritized list in each group down until the initially allocated resource for that group was exhausted. This resulted in formation of a portfolio, but it may be unbalanced. Phase 3: Select vs. Balancing Factors In this phase, some projects were eliminated and some new ones were added to those selected in Phase 2. The goal of this process is to balance the portfolio in terms of:
38

Research vs. Development. Long-Term vs. Short-Term. High Risk vs. Low Risk. Growth vs. Sustainability. Outsourced vs. In-sourced. Local / National vs. International. Portfolio Management Process Phase 4: Execute and Review vs. Strategy As indicated, the portfolio formed so far is the initial or start-up portfolio. Projects are then funded and the portfolio is managed over the life of the program through continuous reformation as active projects are evaluated, completed, postponed or cancelled based on their performance in: Achieving the strategic objectives they were selected for. Achieving satisfactory implementation progress (in terms of scope, schedule, budget and quality). At the same time, strategic objectives may be adjusted and resources may change, which will require portfolio reformation. This portfolio management process ensures that the program is using its resources most efficiently. Without an objective and methodical process, project initiation and resources utilization is usually subject to personal preferences, organizational political pressures and subjective factors.
39
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Strategic Technologies: Advanced Materials

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Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Environment Water Information Technology ECP Nanotechnology

Math and Physics Advanced Materials

Space and Aeronautics Oil and Gas

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Economy and Planning

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology

Ministry of Economy and Planning

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Composite and hybrid materials

Polymers and polymer processing

Metals and alloys

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

the foundation of manufactured

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Alignment with National Science & Technology Policy

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Kingdoms Industry Status

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Materials Research at Selected KSA Research Organizations

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Review of International Advanced Materials Research Institutes

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Advanced Materials R&D Indicators

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

publications produced by countries over this time period.

South Korea 154

Peoples R. China 478 Japan 65

Germany 1,690 USA 4757 Russia

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Table 7: Global Advanced Materials R&D Organizations (2006-2007)

Chinese Acad Sci

Indian Inst Technol

Tsing Hua University 74 7 9 6 19 9

Univ Sci & Technol China 68 10 59 69 44 9 56 14 95 11 56 14 41 1 60 1 17 0 1 68 10 11 9 9 1 56 47 7  8

Russian Acad Sci

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Harbin Inst Technol

Seoul Natl Univ

Natl Univ Singapore

Peoples R. China USA Japan Germany

South Korea India UK France Singapore Israel Malaysia South Africa

Kuwait Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates

Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates Kuwait Oman

0 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5

Average Level of International Collaboration

Strategic Priorities for Advanced Materials Technology Program

Advanced Materials Journals Table 9: presents journals with a significant level of

South Korea 154

Peoples R. China 478 Japan 65

Tsing Hua University 74 7 9 6 19 9

Univ Sci & Technol China 68 10 59 69 44 9 56 14 95 11 56 14 41 1 60 1 17 0 1 68 10 11 9 9 1 56 47 7 8

Smart Materials 49 75 64 46 1 5 14 5 9 0

964 171 6 47 4 9 7 16 1