JEDDAH – A Saudi researcher, who has been recognized with various awards for her inventions, has called for establishing a ministry for scientific research in order to achieve the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 reform initiative. Professor of Parasitology Najia Al-Zanbagi at King Abdulaziz University said such a ministry will help foster and support scientific research in all universities and allocate a separate budget for it. "We should set up integrated scientific laboratories to further scientific research and keep up with the latest developments in many fields," said Al-Zanbagi, who earned her bachelor's degree from Jeddah-based King Abdulaziz University. Al-Zanbagi has been recognized with local awards, the most important of which is the award given by the King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity (Mawhiba). She has also earned several global awards, the latest of which is the Best Woman Inventor Award during the Kaohsiung International Invention and Design Expo (KIDE) held in Taiwan. The award was handed to her by the president of the World Invention Intellectual Property Associations (WIIPA). Moreover, she was given Gold Innovation Medal from Applied Science University in Bucharest during the Euroinvent 2016 held in Romania. Al-Zanbagi said Saudi women are lucky to be living in a country that offers them free education. Any woman who works hard will reap the benefits of her efforts and achieve her goals, she said, while adding that women who do not exert efforts will get nothing and go nowhere. "Perseverance and hard work have made me finish my PhD in three years from the United Kingdom. My dissertation has become a world reference and is available on Amazon.com," she said. Talking about the private sector's role in encouraging innovators, she said many companies today have set up chairs at universities, but more companies need to support science and innovation. This is the only way to help Saudi inventors to manufacture Saudi products in the future, she said. Al-Zanbagi believes that some companies are hesitant about giving financial support to inventors for fear that the projects might fail and they will lose their money. Al-Zanbagi had encountered several obstacles as a researcher. For example, there are no full state-of-the-art scientific laboratories and there is not enough budget for research in the country. A researcher should always search for a financier who is ready to support the project. Al-Zanbagi says it is better to search for different financiers at the same time. "Unfortunately, many innovators, men or women, are not supported in the Kingdom and their ideas do not get transformed into reality although some have great ideas that can benefit the entire human kind, Saudi Arabia in particular," she said. "Each inventor hopes that they find financiers to help them turn their projects into reality. Being recognized with a global award for an invention does not mean that the inventor should not be supported again to invent new things. Financial support is important and should be continuous as long as the inventor has ideas to turn into reality," she noted. Al-Zanbagi believes that inventors should be provided with various facilities and privileges, educational and social, in order to encourage them to excel in their fields.
