The Lebanese Association for Scientific Research (LASeR) is a non-profit and non-political association founded in 2009 to reform higher education and support scientific research in Lebanon. With 40 members dedicated university professors, the Organization’s mission is empowering communities thrive by providing access to quality education, through scholarships/educational loans, capacity building programs, and institutional support for education institutions to meet the needs of the society and the labor market. For the past 11 years, LASeR provided scholarships for more than 1750 students, training for more than 5000 trainees, developed and helped institutions develop 12 Ms/Ma programs with both public and private Lebanese universities. We believe that scientific research and higher education have the main role to overcome the obstacles existing between the educational system and the job market needs in Lebanon.
Prof. Mustapha Jazar, founder of the organization, has been awarded the Ashoka fellowship, the most prestigious award in social innovation in the world.
“Through LASeR, Mustapha is creating a process that recruits the best talents from societies where institutions cannot do it themselves and focuses these talents on addressing their societies’ biggest issues and opportunities. Hence, Mustapha effectively addresses the problem of brain drain throughout the Levant.”
The association has so many programs targeting the youth and society. Our main scholarships program “The City Fund” is designed to give 40-50% scholarships for BS and BA students in partner Universities; the remaining is a zero-interest loan; while MS and PhD students can benefit from 100% educational loans in case of showing acceptance in the desired University. The program is running for the third consecutive year and is currently serving 350 students (Undergraduate and Graduate students).
Moreover, LASeR has designed capacity building programs for students to increase their potential prior and during University years through intensive practical training courses to prepare them to enter the labor market: Health to Community (an intensive Summer bootcamp for health university students to design and implement their own public health campaigns), YESS (Young Empowered Syrians in Secondary – Academic support for Syrian refugees struggling to adapt to the Lebanese system) and Wijhati (an academic orientation program that assists high school students in understanding their own strength and competencies, how to link to SDGs and to issues that are global, and how to understand what major can lead them to where they can best utilize their strengths).
