Research Policies & Guidelines

DU has established policies for the implementation of various aspects of research and consultancy. These include:

This document details the guidelines for carrying out activities related to research & development at DU.

DU has a large pool of qualified and research-oriented faculty with a rich experience in consultancy and on the other hand, the Sultanate of Oman, and especially the Dhofar Region, is witnessing a rapid development in various sectors, which provides a huge scope for consultancy. In view of this, DU aims to provide a favourable atmosphere for its faculty and staff to embark on consultancy activities. The University considers consultancy as an essential professional activity related to the faculty’s area of expertise, skills and research and a tool for providing solutions to various challenges in business, social, economic and technical areas. It is perceived as an activity that is mutually beneficial to the faculty, university, industry and society in general. DU considers consultancy work as an important contribution from the University to society, through the transfer of knowledge and expertise to businesses, industry and community.

DU encourages and supports its students, faculty and staff members in bringing the results of their research, consultancy and other similar activities in diverse fields of knowledge to public use and benefit, and encourages their commercial development, subject to protecting the University’s rights. The main aim behind developing the Intellectual Property (IP) Policy is to encourage advancement of technology and its transfer for public benefit. The policy defines the ownership and rights of the inventor(s)/creator(s) and the University and provides procedures, guidelines and a governing mechanism.

All living beings (human and non-human) have been bestowed with certain fundamental rights around the world. The purpose of DU Ethics policy is to respect the moral rights of living beings and also lay down fundamental ethical principles for all research activities conducted on them at University. DU also reserves the rights to protect non-human living beings and ensure that the experiments involving them are conducted in a safe and socially responsible manner. This policy applies to all leading investigators, staff members, students and researchers engaged in approved research projects on University premises which involve human, animal or genetic ethical considerations. The policy also applies to all DU contractors, suppliers and business partners, wherever appropriate.

The research activities carried out by DU staff members may involve the use of bio-hazardous materials or may result in the generation of bio-hazardous waste. The biosafety policy is to ensure that all research activities involving bio-hazardous materials are well managed and controlled by providing comprehensible procedures and guidelines for approval of such research projects and for safe handling, storage, use and disposal of bio hazardous material. It is also ensured that the staff, students and researchers involved in these projects are aware of the risks associated with the handling of bio-hazardous materials and take the necessary precautions.

The purpose of this policy is to establish fundamental principles of research ethics and code of conduct which will serve as the foundation for research conducted at DU. The University expects all those conducting research to honor these principles and adopt them as standard practice, irrespective of whether they are employees, students or visiting researchers and irrespective of the source of their funding or the field in which they conduct their research or the site where the research is conducted. However, there are bound to be instances of violations of research ethics and code of conduct. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a well-defined procedure for ensuring adherence to research ethics and code of conduct.

DU provides well-defined and organized professional development opportunities to its academic staff to ensure that they have the appropriate skills and expertise to achieve DU’s strategic objectives for research. The University provides both in-house and external professional development opportunities. Staff development needs are linked to annual appraisal results and contemporary developments in the field of teaching, learning and research, which help the staff in maintaining their academic currency and support their scholarly activities.

“Research and Scholarly Achievements” is one of the three criteria used in the “Annual Appraisal” of academic staff and carries a weight of 50% while teaching & learning holds 40% weightage and the community service has 10% weight. The staff-members with average performance in this criterion are identified for research training activities. It is also one of the three criteria used for “Academic promotion”.

The research Teaching Nexus provides the opportunity for faculty to integrate research in their teaching and produce the successful scholarly outcomes. DU encourages staff to incorporate their research activities and the contemporary researches in the field into curricula to foster student interest in research and for understanding its benefits. This helps in motivating and encouraging more student’s participation in research projects.