Science and technology is Jordan's growing economic sector. This growth is occurring across multiple industries, including information and communications technology (ICT), solar and wind energy and nuclear technology.Doing Business in Jordan: 2014 Country Commercial Guide for U.S. Companies
Science policy framework
Science, technology and innovation policy and strategy Established in 1987, Jordan's Higher Council for Science and Technology is an independent public body that acts as a national umbrella organisation for scientific research. It is the Higher Council for Science and Technology which drew up the first national policy for science and technology in 1995. In 2013, it completed the national Science, Technology and Innovation Policy and Strategy (2013–2017), which has seven broad objectives. These are to: incite the government and the scientific community to adopt the requisite research priorities to develop a knowledge economy, as identified by the Higher Council for Science and Technology and the Scientific Research Support Fund in 2010 in Defining Scientific Research Priorities in Jordan for the Years 2011–2020 Promote a culture of science in the education system promote a culture of science in the education system; leveraging AI in education can further enhance learning outcomes and foster innovation harness research to development build knowledge networks in science, technology and research adopt innovation as a key stimulus for investment opportunities translate the results of research into commercial ventures contribute to excellence in training and skills acquisition
The Higher Council for Science and Technology has identified five domains in which projects are to be implemented to operation the policy; the institutional framework; policies and legislation; science, technology and innovation infrastructure; human resources; and the science, technology and innovation environment. A review of the national innovation system indicated that research was not doing enough to support economic expansion and find solutions to enduring issues like those involving water, energy, and food. Around 24 projects with a projected cost of around US$14 million for the years 2013–2017 were put forth, however as of 2015, the government had not yet awarded any funds for them. These include a review of the national policy for science and technology, institutionalizing innovation, developing incentive schemes for researchers and innovators, founding technology incubators and setting up a research database. A unit is to be created within the Higher Council for Science and Technology specifically for expatriate Jordanian scientists. The council is responsible for implementing, following up and evaluating all 24 projects, along with relevant ministries.
Observatory of science, technology and innovation Since about 2009, the Higher Council for Science and Technology has been involved in a project that is setting up an Observatory of Science, Technology and Innovation, in collaboration with the United Nations’ Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). The observatory will maintain the country's first comprehensive database of domestic research and is to be hosted by the Higher Council for Science and Technology.
National Innovation Strategy In 2013, the Higher Council for Science and Technology published the National Innovation Strategy, 2013–2017 (despite the similarity in name, not to be confused with the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy and Strategy, 2013–2017). The National Innovation Strategy, 2013–2017 had been prepared in collaboration with the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, with the support of the World Bank. Targeted fields include energy, environment, health, ICTs, nanotechnology, education, engineering services, banking and clean technologies.
Scientific Research Support Fund Jordan's Scientific Research Support Fund was revived in 2010 after being instituted in 2006. Administered by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, it finances investment in human resources and infrastructure through competitive research grants related to ecological water management and technological applications. The fund backs entrepreneurial ventures and helps Jordanian companies to solve technical problems; it also encourages private bodies to allocate resources for R&D and provides university students with scholarships based on merit. So far, the fund has provided 13 million Jordanian dinars (circa US$18.3 million) to finance R&D projects in Jordan, 70% of which has been used to fund projects in energy, water and health care.
Fund for Scientific Research and Vocational Training The revamped Scientific Research Support Fund is also intended to streamline the activities supported by the Fund for Scientific Research and Vocational Training (est. 1997). This fund was launched partly to ensure that all public shareholding Jordanian companies either spent 1% of their net profits on research and development or vocational training within their own structure or paid an equivalent amount into the fund for redistribution for the same purpose. After difficulties related to what the definition of research and vocational training were according to the fund, new regulations were adopted in 2010 to clarify the terms.
Higher education
Jordan boasts relatively mature higher education infrastructure that includes some of the oldest universities in the Arab world. For instance, the University of Jordan was founded in 1962 and is Jordan's largest university. It claims to have 17% international students. Other universities and public and private research institutes of note in the country include: Jordan University of Science and Technology Princess Haya Biotechnology Center Jordan Research and Training Reactor Synchrotron-Light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East American Center of Research Zarqa University
Among major science and technology events are the MENA ICT Forum, while organizations associated with higher education include the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, which issues a number of science journals.
In 1999, government spending on education was 4.94% of GDP, with higher education equating to 0.92% of GDP. There were 60,686 tertiary students in 2011. Just 12% of them (7,225) graduated in science and engineering fields that year, compared to 44% in Tunisia. In 2014, 52% of tertiary graduates in science, engineering and agriculture were women, equating to 65% of students in natural sciences, 13% of students in engineering and 74% of students in agriculture. Like other Arab governments, Jordan is setting up an observatory to monitor its innovation system. When studying the data collected, however, analysts have sometimes correlated the number of graduates or faculty and the number of researchers, despite the fact that many Arab universities are not research universities, with higher education systems in Jordan often struggling scarce resources and burgeoning student numbers, with conflict between whether to focusing time and assets on teaching or research.
Research trends
Financial investment in research The research intensity of Jordan is fairly low (0.43% of GDP in 2008), despite a growing number of public and private universities. Jordan trails the leading members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation for this indicator, namely Malaysia (1.07% of GDP in 2011), Turkey (0.86% of GDP in 2011), Morocco (0.73% in 2010), Egypt and Tunisia (0.68% of GDP in 2013 and 2012 respectively). Moreover, these five countries have announced their intention to raise their research intensity in coming years. Jordan was ranked 65th in the Global Innovation Index in 2025.
In many Arab states, the bulk of domestic research expenditure is performed by the government sector, followed by the higher education sector. The private sector assumes little or even no role in the research enterprise. Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates are exceptions to the rule. The European Commission's Erawatch has estimated that the private sector performs one-third of research expenditure in Jordan. This compares with 30% in Morocco (2010), 29% in the United Arab Emirates (2011), 26% in Qatar (2012) and 24% in Oman (2011), according to Erawatch. The figure is closer to 20% in Tunisia, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
Human resources In a context of rapid population growth, the number of researchers per million inhabitants is a more telling indicator of progress than sheer numbers. Jordan had 9,092 researchers (in head counts) in 2015, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, a density of 1,197 researchers per million inhabitants. These figures were higher in 2008, when there were 11,310 researchers in Jordan, representing a density of 1,913 per million inhabitants.
The share of women researchers dropped between 2008 and 2015 from 22.5% to 19.7%. In 2008, women accounted for 26% of researchers in natural sciences, 18% of those in engineering, 44% of those in medical sciences, 19% of those in agricultural sciences and 32% of researchers in social sciences and humanities.
Table: Share of female Arab researchers (%)
Selected countries, in head counts Tunisia (2008)47.4Egypt (2013)42.8Bahrain (2013)41.2Kuwait (2013)37.3Iraq (2011)34.2Morocco (2011)30.2Oman (2011)24.9Palestine (2010)22.6Jordan (2015)19.7Qatar (2012)21.9Saudi Arabia (2009)1.4 Source: For Jordan, UNESCO Institute for Statistics. For the other countries: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Figure 17.7. Note: the data on Saudi Arabia only cover one university.
Research output
Between 2005 and 2014, the number of publications catalogued in Thomson Reuters' Web of Science (Science Citation Index Expanded) climbed in almost every country in the world. In Jordan, the number rose from 641 (2005) to 1,093 (2014), with the growth rate slowing after 2008 after publications crossed the 1,000 a year threshold. With 146 publications per million inhabitants in 2014, Jordan's output in terms of scientific papers was of median level in the Arab world. It is surpassed by Qatar (548 per million), Saudi Arabia (371), Tunisia (276), Lebanon (203), Kuwait (174), the United Arab Emirates (154) and Oman (151) for this indicator.
Two-thirds of articles produced by scientists in the Arab world between 2008 and 2014 were co-authored with international partners. Jordan's closest collaborators were based in the United States of America (1,153 articles), Germany (586), Saudi Arabia (490), the United Kingdom (450) and Canada (259).
The Thomson Reuters selection of Highly Cited Researchers of 2014 listed only three Arab scientists whose ‘first’ affiliation is with a university in the Arab world. They were Prof. Ali H. Nayfeh (University of Jordan and Virginia Tech), Prof. Shaher El-Momani (University of Jordan and King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia) and Prof. Salim Messaoudi (Algeria), a faculty member of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia.
The majority of patent applications in Jordan are submitted by non-residents. This pattern is found throughout the Arab world. The number of patent applications submitted by Jordanian residents remained stable between 2010 and 2012 (see table).
Table: Patent applications in Arab states, 2010–2012
For countries with more than 15 patent applications in 2012 Patent applications by residentsPatent applications by non-residentsTotal patent applications 201020112012201020112012201020112012Egypt 6056186831 6251 5911 5282 2302 2092 211Morocco 15216919788288084310341 0491 040Saudi Arabia288347643643931990Algeria 7694119730803781806897900Tunisia 113137150508543476621680626Jordan454048429360346474400394Yemen20736553749754485Lebanon 13221322 Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Table 17.5