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Abstract
During the 1960s, the Arab countries began to establish specialized research centers such as the National Center for Social and Criminal Research in Egypt. And according to the latest report from the University of Pennsylvania in 2015, the number of research centers in Arab countries varied and showed a kind of disparity in numbers. Although Saudi Arabia possesses the financial, physical, economic, political, and societal components that help to create large numbers of research centers at a high level, it ranks 15th among Arab countries and has only four research centers. This raises the question about: What are the present realities and future hopes of research centers in Saudi Arabia? So, this current study focuses on: the number of research centers in Western countries in comparison to Arab countries, the reality of research centers in Saudi Arabia, and the obstacles facing the establishment of research centers in the country and in the Gulf countries. It also provides a set of proposals that may lead to an increase in the number of research centers in Saudi Arabia, the issues to be studied by such research centers, and the future vision for decision-makers. The results of the study show the small number of research centers in Saudi Arabia in particular and the Gulf countries in general compared to foreign countries. They also show that the United States of America obtained the first rank among other Western countries and Egypt ranked first among Arab countries.