Identify meaningful research questions
Define tractable questions grounded in real technical, institutional, linguistic, or societal needs.
Research at SAIF
Building credible research pathways from Syria.
Research is central to SAIF’s mission. We work to connect meaningful questions, capable people, trusted data, technical resources, mentorship, and institutions so credible AI research can be developed, evaluated, published, and applied.
How we work together
Clear rules before the work begins.
SAIF uses one authoritative charter for each relationship, shared publicly and used internally. Researchers and advisory candidates can understand the terms before they disclose substantive work or commit their time.
Researcher Charter
Research ownership, credit, publication, and engagement modalities
Defines the five ways researchers can engage with SAIF, protects background IP, establishes non-confidential first disclosure, and requires project-specific terms before substantive work.
Read the Researcher Charter →Advisory Council Charter
A project-based expert network with defined safeguards
Defines the Council’s role, project-based operating model, confidentiality, conflicts, attribution, compensation principles, and limits on institutional representation.
Read the Advisory Council Charter →How SAIF supports research
The model is designed to support work from question definition through evaluation and responsible publication, without presenting planned work as completed.
Match talent and expertise
Connect researchers, engineers, domain specialists, mentors, and institutional problem owners around suitable work.
Coordinate technical resources
Work to provide or coordinate the data, compute, tools, infrastructure, and access a research effort responsibly requires.
Support disciplined experimentation
Use clear methods, documentation, evaluation criteria, review, and reproducible practices where appropriate.
Publish credible outputs
Share useful findings and resources where quality, permissions, confidentiality, and research readiness allow.
Potential research outputs
Outputs depend on the question, quality of the work, permissions, resources, and appropriate review. This list describes possible formats, not claims of existing publications or projects.
- Research papers
- Technical reports
- Datasets and evaluation resources
- GitHub repositories
- Hugging Face resources
- Working prototypes
Trusted data & knowledge
Knowledge is research infrastructure.
What is not documented and organized today becomes less present in tomorrow’s knowledge systems.
Syrian and Levantine language, context, archives, and institutional knowledge remain a major research and infrastructure theme. SAIF works only with material that can be accessed and used responsibly; listing a theme does not imply that a dataset has been received or authorized.
Syrian and Levantine Arabic
Dialect and speech
Archives and institutional knowledge
Evaluation resources
Responsible digitization
Data preparation, documentation, and labeling
Culturally and linguistically relevant AI resources
Research outputs & updates
These sections are structured to receive real work as it is reviewed and approved for public release.
Research briefs
Concise, evidence-led analysis published as work becomes ready.
Technical notes
Methods, implementation lessons, and technical documentation.
Open models & datasets
A home for approved open resources when they are available.
Progress updates
Institutional milestones and research-development updates.
Downloads
Public reports and resources cleared for release.
Researchers
Bring a question or research direction without surrendering it.
Established and independent researchers can start with a non-confidential summary, review the Researcher Charter, and explore the engagement modality that fits the work.
Engage as a researcherResearch internship
Learn by contributing to real research needs.
Students and early-career contributors may express interest in learning-oriented research support. Placement depends on current needs, supervision capacity, and fit.
Research internshipAdvisors
Contribute specialist judgment where it matters.
Experienced researchers, technologists, academics, and institutional experts may express interest or be nominated for curated advisory consideration.
Advisory interest