RIYADH: The Ministry of Education has launched a targeted social research initiative aimed at encouraging high-quality research in social sciences, the Saudi Press Agency reported. The initiative is to direct research into fields with a development dimension in Saudi Arabia, with the aim of enhancing the culture of social science research and linking the country’s academic and research institutions. The initiative focuses on five areas related to Saudi social challenges, as well as the objectives of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 reform plan. These are changes related to the family, social empowerment, women’s empowerment, future cities and economic leadership, said Dr. Hisham bin Abdul Aziz Al-Hadlaq, who is director general of the Research and Development Office (RDO) at the ministry. He said the initiative was divided into two tracks. The first is related to research projects with a budget of nearly SR3 million ($1.68 million) over a period of one to two years. Its objective is to enhance interdisciplinary research between teams of two members and above, and to collect data at a national level. The second track is related to small and medium grants with a budget of SR1 million over a period of one year. The objective of this track is to carry out locally based research on a smaller scale. It is based on teams that include one researcher and one assistant researcher, in addition to supporting research teams, he added. Al-Hadlaq said 636 initial research proposals have already been received from researchers at universities, government institutions, and non-profit organizations. Of these 37 were found to be plagiarized while 513 qualified for the second stage of evaluation under the supervision of specialists in social science research. Al-Hadlaq said the RDO is managing 23 initiatives as part of the Program for Supporting Research and Development in Universities, an integral part of Vision 2030 and the development of human resources in the Kingdom.