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Projects

The MARSAD Lab has been continuously funded through competitive grants from QNRF and QRDI in Qatar, HBKU internal programs, as well as Northwestern University (NU) such as the AIM Lab, the Dean's Office and Provost Office grants.

8
Active projects
11
Completed projects
$5M+
Total awarded

Active Projects

Lead PI Active
MARSAD AI
Funder: QRDI (Qatar Research, Development and Innovation Council) · ID: NPRP14C-0916-210015 · Period: 2022-10
The project develops a dataset and a web-based social media observatory designed to monitor, analyze, and interpret past, current, and emerging public discourse across Qatar and the wider Arab world in both Arabic and English.
PI Active
Critical Digital Literacy
Funder: QRDI · ID: NPRP14C-37878-SP-465 · Period: 2022-10
Part of the Digital Citizenship cluster, focused on critical literacy frameworks for Arab digital audiences.
PI Active
Responsible AI and Large Language Models for Social Good in the Arab World
Funder: QRDI · ID: ECMV01-0928-250034
Cross-Institutional Innovation Workshop on responsible AI and LLM deployment for social good contexts in the Arab world.
PI Active
Unified Medical App for Patient-Centric Healthcare Management in Qatar
Funder: QRDI · ID: UREP 32-0303-250332
Development of an integrated medical application supporting patient-centric healthcare management in Qatar.
PI Active
NexTutor · Pioneering Qatar's Next-Generation AI Learning Ecosystem
Funder: QRDI · ID: LiLEC01-0302-250052
AI-driven learning ecosystem tailored to Qatar's educational context, integrating generative AI in pedagogy.
Lead PI Active
The AI Sadaqah Journey · Explore, Give, Inspire
Funder: QRDI · ID: MCSC02-0217-250013
AI-powered platform exploring charitable giving and social inspiration through Islamic cultural frameworks.
Lead PI Active
CONAN-EN: Building a Counter-Narrative Dataset to Combat Online Hate Speech through Human-Machine Collaboration
Funder: Northwestern University Provost's Grants for Research in Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts (HSSA) · Period: 2025 to 2026-08
This project builds CONAN-EN, an English-language counter-narrative dataset designed to support effective responses to online hate speech. Through a human-machine collaborative annotation process, the project pairs hateful content with thoughtful, context-aware counter-narratives, enabling research on automated systems that can help moderate online discourse constructively.
Announcement ↗
Lead PI Active
Towards Trustworthy Arabic AI: A Foundational Safety Dataset
Funder: Northwestern University Qatar Research and Creative Development Grant · Period: 2025
This project develops a foundational Arabic safety evaluation dataset to support the responsible deployment of large language models in Arabic-speaking contexts. The resource addresses gaps in current safety benchmarks by capturing culturally and linguistically specific safety concerns across Arabic dialects and regional contexts.

Completed Projects

Lead PI Completed
Resources and Applications for Detecting and Classifying Polarized and Hate Speech in Arabic Social Media
Funder: QNRF · Amount: $509,000 · Period: 2021-05 to 2024-05
Multi-year project producing the ADHAR hate speech corpus, MARASTA stance corpus, and multiple CheckThat! Lab shared task contributions.
PI Completed
Visual Exploration of Chain of Narrators in the Kutub Al-Sittah
Funder: QNRF · Amount: $600,000 · Period: 2021-04 to 2023-04 · Coordinator: Younss Ait Mou
Funded the development of Hadith authorship verification tools, narrator-chain visualization, and semantic analysis of Hadith corpora.
PI Completed
A Multimedial Education Tool for Qatar's History
Funder: HBKU Thematic Research Grant · Amount: $300,000 · Period: 2021-01 to 2023-01 · Coordinator: Jens Schneider
PI Completed
Writing the Future: Metadiscourse and Voice in English and Arabic Argumentative Writings of Qatari University Students
Funder: QNRF · Amount: $516,000 · Period: 2020-05 to 2022-05 · Coordinator: Abdelhamid Ahmed
Produced the QCAW 1.0 bilingual writer corpus (LDC2022T04).
PI Completed
Developing an HBKU Index of Social Cohesion
Funder: HBKU · Amount: QAR 700,000 · Period: 2022-08 · Coordinator: Abdolmehdi Riazi
Exploration and intervention at the state and region levels.
Lead PI Completed
COVID-19 Misinformation and Social Networks Analysis in Qatar
Funder: HBKU Innovation Center · Amount: $100,000 · Period: 2020-12 to 2021-08
PI Completed
A Personalized and Intelligent Digital Mental Health Platform for Qatar and the Arab World
Funder: QNRF · Amount: $395,720 · Period: 2020-11 to 2022-07 · Coordinator: Mowafa Househ
Lead PI Completed
Pro2Faker · Proactive Profiling of Fake News Spreaders
Funder: Spanish Agency of Innovation (CDTI), Ministry of Science · Period: 2020-09 to 2022-09
Lead PI Completed
The First International Workshop on Arabic Big Data & AI
Funder: QNRF · Amount: $35,000 · Period: 2020-04 to 2021-04
Lead PI Completed
Building Multi-Arabic Dialect Resources
Funder: HBKU CHSS Faculty Internal Start-up Grant · Amount: QAR 50,000 · Period: 2019-05 to 2021-04
Co-PI Completed
Arabic Author Profiling for Cyber-Security
Funder: QNRF · Amount: $719,526 · Period: 2017-02 to 2020-06
Major project producing ARAP-Tweet, deception detection datasets, and the FIRE Author Profiling shared tasks for Arabic.