MoHERI Oman: The Block Funding Programme

MoHERI is the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation of the Sultanate of Oman, the government body responsible for higher education policy and for funding and coordinating scientific research nationally. Its flagship domestic research-funding instrument is the Block Funding Programme (BFP), a recurring national grant scheme delivered through the Oman Research Portal. This guide explains what MoHERI is, how the Block Funding Programme is structured, and what an international researcher or partner institution needs to know before pursuing Omani funding or collaboration.

Quick answer

MoHERI was established by Royal Decree No. 111/2020, transforming the former Ministry of Higher Education and absorbing the functions of The Research Council (TRC), Oman’s previous national research-funding body.
The Block Funding Programme (BFP) is MoHERI’s main competitive research-grant scheme, run through the Oman Research Portal (Research Information Management System, or RIMS).
BFP has three sub-programmes: Research Grants (RG) for PhD holders (up to OMR 20,000, two years), Graduate Research Grants (GRG) for master’s/bachelor’s holders or postgraduate students (up to OMR 3,000, two years), and Undergraduate Research Grants (URG) for undergraduates (up to OMR 1,500, one year).
BFP funds are awarded to individual principal investigators, but every applicant must be hosted by a research institution that is electronically affiliated with MoHERI at submission and through contract signing — it is not a grant an unaffiliated individual, domestic or international, can apply for directly.
International researchers without an Omani institutional base generally need a collaboration or co-investigator arrangement with an affiliated Omani institution to access BFP funding; MoHERI also runs other, separate programmes, such as the Strategic Research Programme for health research, that follow different structures.

What MoHERI is and how it is organized

MoHERI was created under Royal Decree No. 111/2020, issued in August 2020, which restructured Oman’s former Ministry of Higher Education into a combined ministry covering higher education, scientific research, and innovation policy. As part of that restructuring, MoHERI took over the national research-funding functions previously held by The Research Council (TRC), which had administered Oman’s block funding and other national grant schemes before the merger. The TRC name persists in some legacy documentation and in the RIMS portal domain (rims.trc.gov.om), which is a holdover from that transition rather than a sign of a separate, still-operating agency.

MoHERI’s research-funding mandate sits within a broader national strategy: research and innovation investment in Oman is framed around Oman Vision 2040, the country’s long-term economic diversification plan, which identifies research and development capacity as part of the shift away from hydrocarbon dependence. MoHERI is the ministry-level body that both sets research policy and directly administers competitive research grants — a somewhat more consolidated structure than systems where a policy ministry and an arm’s-length funding council are separate legal entities (compare, for instance, CASRAI’s guide to STDF in Egypt, where the funding authority operates under, but distinct from, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research).

The Block Funding Programme: structure and sub-programmes

The Block Funding Programme is MoHERI’s principal recurring, competitive research-grant scheme for researchers based at Omani institutions. It is organized into three sub-programmes, distinguished by the applicant’s career/academic stage rather than by discipline:

Research Grants (RG) — for applicants holding a PhD or equivalent (or, for medical doctors, a senior-specialist qualification or higher). Maximum project duration is two years, with a budget of up to OMR 20,000 per project (roughly US$52,000 at Oman’s fixed currency peg, offered here only as a rough approximation for international readers — treat MoHERI’s own published figures as authoritative).
Graduate Research Grants (GRG) — for applicants holding a master’s or bachelor’s degree with at least one year of relevant work experience, postgraduate students, or Oman Medical Specialty Board residents. Maximum duration two years, budget up to OMR 3,000 per project (roughly US$7,800).
Undergraduate Research Grants (URG) — for undergraduate students who have completed their foundation year with a minimum GPA (2.30 or its equivalent in the published guidelines). Maximum duration one year, budget up to OMR 1,500 per project (roughly US$3,900).

These figures come from MoHERI’s own published Block Funding Program guidelines and MoHERI’s application-cycle announcements; specific budget ceilings, GPA thresholds, and call windows are set per funding cycle and should be confirmed against MoHERI’s current guidelines document and the Oman Research Portal before an applicant relies on them for a live submission. MoHERI has reported funding several hundred projects per cycle across the three sub-programmes historically — for example, 349 proposals totaling roughly OMR 1.95 million in a recent reported cycle — giving a sense of scale, though exact figures vary year to year.

Eligibility mechanics: institutional hosting, not individual application

The detail most likely to surprise an administrator used to individual-investigator schemes is that BFP is structured around institutional hosting, not free-standing individual eligibility. Per MoHERI’s published guidelines:

The principal investigator (and any co-PI) must be affiliated with, and hosted by, a research institution at the time of submission, and must remain so through evaluation and until a funding contract is signed.
The host research institution itself must be electronically affiliated with MoHERI — registered within the Oman Research Portal system — before its researchers can submit through it. This affiliation step is an institutional prerequisite, separate from any individual applicant’s eligibility.
Each affiliated institution designates an institutional focal point who coordinates BFP submissions on the institution’s side; focal points and evaluation-committee members are themselves excluded from applying, to avoid conflicts of interest.
The proposed research must be new — not already started, ongoing, or completed — and an applicant cannot hold another uncompleted MoHERI-funded project at the same time.
The research topic must have relevance to the Sultanate of Oman, and proposals must be free of any conflict of interest connected to Oman.

In practice, this means BFP functions as a nationally-funded, institution-mediated scheme: MoHERI funds individual PI-led projects, but only for PIs who are affiliated with and vouched for by an Omani research institution that has itself completed a separate registration step with the ministry. It is not a block grant paid out to an institution to redistribute at its own discretion (despite the “block” in the name, which refers to the programme funding a block/portfolio of grants across categories in a single national scheme, not to institution-level lump-sum awards), and it is not a mechanism an individual researcher, Omani or foreign, can apply to without an eligible institutional host.

How to apply

BFP applications are submitted through the Oman Research Portal (accessible via orp.moheri.gov.om, with the underlying application system historically hosted at rims.trc.gov.om, the Research Information Management System). MoHERI typically opens a registration and submission window annually or per funding cycle — recent cycles have opened registration in the first quarter of the calendar year — and publishes an updated Block Funding Program Guidelines document ahead of each call. Because call dates, budget ceilings, and specific eligibility thresholds are revised between cycles, an applicant or administrator should treat the current guidelines document on MoHERI’s own site as the authoritative source rather than any single past cycle’s figures. General programme inquiries can be directed to MoHERI’s published BFP contact address, [email protected].

Practical guidance for international researchers and partner institutions

For a researcher or research office outside Oman, the institutional-hosting requirement is the key practical constraint to plan around:

Direct individual application is not the pathway. An unaffiliated international researcher cannot apply to BFP without an Omani host institution vouching for the project. The realistic route in is a collaboration with an Omani-based PI or co-PI at an institution already electronically affiliated with MoHERI — the Omani partner would be the BFP applicant of record, with the international researcher participating as a named collaborator rather than the funded PI.
Identify an affiliated institution first. Oman’s public and private universities, colleges, and research centers vary in whether they are registered with the Oman Research Portal. A prospective partner institution’s research office or institutional focal point is the right first point of contact to confirm affiliation status and current BFP call timing.
Check for other MoHERI-administered programmes. BFP is MoHERI’s principal general research-grant scheme, but not its only one — MoHERI also administers sector-specific schemes such as the Strategic Research Programme (SRP) for health research, run in coordination with Oman’s National Health Research Centre, which follows its own structure and eligibility rules distinct from BFP. An international partner working in a specific sector should check whether a more targeted MoHERI programme applies before defaulting to BFP.
Confirm figures against the primary source. Budget ceilings, GPA/eligibility thresholds, and submission windows are set per cycle. Always check the current Block Funding Program Guidelines document and any open-call announcement on moheri.gov.om or the Oman Research Portal rather than relying on a prior cycle’s terms.

Frequently asked questions

Can a researcher outside Oman apply directly to the Block Funding Programme?

No. BFP applicants must be hosted by a research institution that is electronically affiliated with MoHERI, from submission through contract signing. An international researcher’s practical route in is collaborating with a PI or co-PI based at an affiliated Omani institution, rather than applying independently.

What is the difference between MoHERI and The Research Council (TRC)?

The Research Council was Oman’s national research-funding body before 2020. Royal Decree No. 111/2020 restructured the former Ministry of Higher Education into MoHERI and folded TRC’s research-funding functions into it. Some legacy infrastructure, such as the RIMS portal domain, still carries the TRC name.

Is the Block Funding Programme the same as a block grant to an institution?

No, despite the name. BFP funds individual, PI-led research projects across three career-stage sub-programmes (RG, GRG, URG); it is not a lump-sum award paid to an institution to distribute at its own discretion. The institution’s role is to host and vouch for eligible applicants, not to receive and redistribute the funding itself.

How often does MoHERI open Block Funding Programme calls?

MoHERI has run BFP calls on a recurring, typically annual, basis, with registration windows that have historically opened in the first part of the calendar year. Exact timing varies by cycle, so check the Oman Research Portal or MoHERI’s own announcements for the current call.

Related CASRAI guides

STDF Egypt: The Science, Technology & Innovation Funding Authority Explained — a comparable MENA-region national funder profile.
NSFC (China): A Funding Overview for International Researchers — another national funder guide written for international collaborators navigating institutional-affiliation requirements.
Singapore Research Funding Landscape — a further example of how national research-funding bodies are structured outside North America and Europe.