The program is jointly led by Weill Cornell Medicine - Qatar & the Biotechnology Centre, Ministry of Environment and aims to develop Qatar as an emerging leader in date palm horticulture and biotechnology applications. The strategic plan is to stimulate research for advanced technology & knowledge transfer, sustainable & improved date production systems, productive date varieties and to investigate health benefits of date-enriched food diets in human population.

The Date Palm Research Program (DPRP) is centered on four themes to increase the output delivery:

Research advancement in date palm genomics, metabolomics & developmental biology for production of date varieties with enhanced yield, pest resistance and tolerance to adverse environmental conditions.

Provide a unique partnership platform for research development of date palm horticulture in Qatar and abroad.

Disseminate data through a freely available, highly integrated database as an open source of data resource for further genome & metabolome studies

Establish a condensation nucleus for a future Qatar Institute of Date Palm Research

This project is made possible by NPRP-EP grant #NPRP-EP X-014-4-001 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the project team.