Centers of Research Excellence 

Recently, the Ministry of Higher Education has strived to foster a spirit of competition among universities to gain support to establish and develop centers of research excellence to upgrade the output of research and development in the universities to higher levels and to participate in acquiring and localizing modern technology to fine solution to problems facing public and private development, industry, production and service sectors and to support national economy founded on knowledge -based production and development.

The Ministry of Higher Education attempts, through promoting the idea of centers of research excellence, to encourage the universities to qualify all their current and future research centers to be excellence centers that that are capable of innovation, producing, and marketing knowledge and modern technology and building distinguished relationships with local and international partners to secure financial and technological support to gain sufficiency and strengthen their capability to survive, develop and improve their performance.

The Ministry has set certain standards to develop centers of research excellence and encouraged the principle of integration through establishing cooperative research centers that are later transferred into excellence centers after accumulating the required credit of experience and research programs. KFU hosts the Center of Research Excellence in Palm Trees and Dates. This center is funded by the Ministry of Higher Education and practices its research activities in a number of interests in basic and applied research and holds scientific gatherings and offers training course in the field of date specialties and application.

 Centers of Research Excellence

• The Date Palm Research Center