Taking place at the HBKU Student Center, the courses have been held in collaboration with autism consultants from Cambridge, UK, and cover key approaches to diagnosing autism through the use of interviews, coding, and observation. In collaboration with local stakeholders, QBRI selected twelve local researchers, autism specialists, and medical practitioners to take part in this course, including eight from Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), seven from the Shafallah Center for Children with Special Needs, and three representing QBRI. 

Autism, characterized by deficits in social communication and repetitive and restrictive behavior, has a rising global prevalence rate; but across the Arab world there is limited data about the condition – something that researchers at QBRI are keen to rectify. 

QBRI is committed to strategic partnerships with local stakeholders, including Hamad Medical Corporation, the Shafallah Center for Children with Special Needs, and other autism centers in the country to establishing Qatar as a regional leader in autism research and innovation.”

These programs will involve close collaborations between research scientists from different disciplines, including biomedical sciences, engineering, computational sciences, social sciences and robotics, and will also leverage the investment made in national projects such as the Qatar Genome Project, to position Qatar as a regional and global leader in autism research and innovation.