QCRI grew out of a series of meetings held by the Qatari Arab Joint Committee (QAJC) analyzing the needs of Qatar.
[1] The group found that Qatar Foundation funded basic computing research at academic institutions worldwide through Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) and that it incubated the development of new commercial computing products through Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), but it lacked a research organization focused on computing grand challenges that address national priorities for growth and development.
QCRI was established in 2010 with a mandate to tackle large-scale computing challenges relevant to the needs of Qatari stakeholders.
The media industry needs solutions for the cataloging and retrieval of vast amounts of content generated through audio and video, and it needs Arabic language technology solutions to digitize and publish the vast Arabic language corpora.
It also will work closely with QSTP to identify the most viable commercial applications of QCRI's research.
QCRI's principal sponsor is the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development.