9/15/2004 9:30:00 AM GMT
The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) is expected to approve funding for the activities of a 'science development network', which aims at promoting science in the Islamic world.
IDB Sources said that the plans are due to be finalized at the 29th annual meeting of the IDB board of governors, which opens today in Tehran, Iran.
The head of the IDB scholarship program office, Mohamed Ghazali, said that one of the proposed activities is the publication of a science magazine that is entitled “Science and Development.”
This magazine aims at promoting the relations between scientists, as well as disseminates scientific information, including the results of studies monitoring the development and socio-economic impact of science and technology in member countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
Ghazali also said that the network is going to set up a database containing the results of the researches done by IDB scholars that have industrial applications. He added that such a database would give a way for cooperation between science and industry.
The network will include of scientists who took part in the IDB merit scholarship program, and will train scientists and technologists in the Islamic world by arranging workshops, training programs and conferences on different fields of science and technology within the Islamic world.
Even though the network was supposed to be part of the establishments of the IDB merit scholarship program in 1992, its launching has been delayed while the number of IDB scholars grew.
Formal recognition and funding for the network were most recently proposed by delegates at an IDB forum on 'development of human capital of the Islamic world in science and technology' held in August in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The former education minister of Indonesia and present chairman of the Jakarta-based Foundation for Human Resources Development for Science and Technology, Wardiman Djojonegoro, highlighted at that meeting the poor situation of science in the Islamic world at large.
He said: "Arab nations spend only 0.15 per cent of their GDP on research and development, well below the world average of 1.4 percent, and the number of computers per capita is a quarter of the global average."
The 244 IDB merit scientists from which the network will be drawn are from 44 OIC member countries and work in 172 institutions. 141 of those scientists have PhDs and the rest of them have also done post-doctoral researches.
Also 120 IDB scholars from 16 least developed member countries that have benefited from the MSc program may take part in the proposed network.