Hawkar Ibrahim, PhD
Manager of Research, Grants, and Ethics Unit
Introduction
Dr. Hawkar Ibrahim is the Manager of the Research, Grants, and Ethics Unit (RGEU) at the University of Kurdistan Hewlêr. In this role, he provides strategic oversight of the university’s research support infrastructure and manages grant development and administration. He also chairs the University Ethics Committee, leading the ethical governance of research practices and shaping policies that uphold research integrity across the university.
Education
- - Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Bielefeld University, 2020–2025
- - PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Bielefeld University, 2020
- - MSc, Clinical Psychology, Koya University, 2012
- - BA, Psychology, Salahaddin University, 2009
Research
Dr. Hawkar Ibrahim's research focuses on the psychological consequences of trauma, forced displacement, and genocide. His work spans trauma and mental health assessments, ethical issues in working with vulnerable populations, transdiagnostic treatment models, intervention research, and the intergenerational transmission of trauma. He has served as principal investigator and project manager for several research projects funded by international competitive research grants. Dr. Ibrahim has published extensively in leading peer-reviewed journals, including JAMA Network Open, BMC Medicine, BMC Psychiatry, Frontiers in Psychology, and PLOS Mental Health. His contributions include the development of the first PTSD diagnostic instrument designed for traumatized children in the Middle East (KID-PIN) and the first validation of the PCL-5 among Middle Eastern displaced populations; a tool now used extensively in both research and clinical practice across the globe.
Professional Membership
- Dr. Hawkar Ibrahim serves as an editorial board member of the European Journal of Psychotraumatology, an open-access interdisciplinary journal owned by the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. He is also a member of the German Alliance for Global Health Research, a networking platform funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research that promotes interdisciplinary, international, and cross-sectoral research on global health.