The Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC) will publish the winning works from the fifth edition of its Research Grant Programme under the Basaer (Insights) Research Papers and Studies Series. The initiative is part of the Centre’s ongoing efforts to support specialised research in the Arabic language and its sciences, while reinforcing Arabic’s position as a language of knowledge and culture.
These publications will be unveiled by the Centre at the forthcoming edition of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, scheduled to take place from 13 to 18 September 2026.
The winning works comprised seven research projects spanning a broad range of linguistic, literary and heritage studies. These included The Arabs’ Discovery of Japan: From the Russo-Japanese War to World War II by Dr Reem Ahmed Saleh; The Dream, the Prison and Ibn al-Haytham’s Dark Room: A New Reading of Space in Arab Civilization by Dr Lina Jammal; Arabic-English Dictionary of Collocations by researcher Ramadan Mohamed Ahmed Bakhit; Dictionary of Postmodern Narrative by Ahmed Khreis; The Celestial Star in the French Conquest, authored by Yuhanna bin Yusuf Warsi al-Faransi and edited and studied by author and researcher Sheherazade Al-Arabi; and One Hundred and One Nights, prepared and edited by Dr Haitham Mahmoud Sharkawi, Naoya Katsumata and Ahmad Zein Eddin.
His Excellency Dr. Ali bin Tamim, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC), said: “The Research Grant Programme is one of the Centre’s strategic initiatives, supporting scholarly research in the Arabic language. It encourage sresearchers to produce rigorous work that keeps pace with advances in knowledge and enriches Arabic scholarship with high-quality studies of lasting academic value. The programme also reflects the Centre’s commitment to strengthening the position of Arabic as a language of science, knowledge and creativity".
His Excellency added: “We are proud that the Research Grant Programme, over its successive editions, has attracted researchers from around the world and produced high-quality publications that have advanced knowledge in Arabic language studies. We look forward to the fifth edition’s publications making a valuable contribution to Arabic scholarship and providing an important resource for researchers and scholars in linguistic and literary studies".
The fifth edition attracted strong interest from researchers, receiving 516 applications from 36 countries. Following a rigorous evaluation and peer review process, seven research projects were selected to receive grants. This growing level of participation reflects the programme’s increasing prominence as one of the leading initiatives supporting specialised research in the Arabic language and its related fields.
Recent figures confirm the programme’s continued growth and expanding impact. The sixth edition in 2026 received 623 applications from 34 countries, reflecting its growing standing among researchers and academic institutions within the Arab world and beyond. This demonstrates the programme’s important role in advancing knowledge production in the Arabic language and supporting specialised research across its diverse fields.
The Centre launched the Research Grant Programme in 2021 to encourage researchers specialising in the Arabic language to undertake original research projects that contribute to the advancement of Arabic studies and strengthen the language’s standing in academic and cultural spheres. The programme awards between six and eight research grants each year across the fields of Literature and Criticism, Arabic Lexicon, Academic Curricula, Teaching Arabic to Non-Arabic Speakers, Manuscript Editing, and Applied and Computational Linguistics. It also allocates a total annual fund of AED 600,000 to support these grants.
Since its launch, the programme has supported 42 high-quality research projects across diverse disciplines within Arabic language and literary studies, reinforcing the role of Arabic in scholarly research and knowledge production.
The publication of the winning works from the fifth edition of its Research Grant Programme reinforces the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre’s position as a leading platform for scholarly research in Arabic. It also strengthens the language’s presence in academic and cultural spheres and enriches Arabic scholarship through rigorous publications that advance Arabic studies and support researchers and scholars worldwide.
