Scholarships for students from OIC member states announced

Islamabad: Pakistan has announced scholarships for Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) students as part of its commitment to the implementation mechanism of OIC’s 10-Year science and technology agenda.

COMSTECH, the OIC Ministerial Standing Committee on Science & Technology, hosted a high-level meeting of representatives from OIC member states here in Islamabad on Tuesday to devise an implementation strategy for the OIC’s 10-Year Science, Technology and Innovation Agenda.

The participants included delegates from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Egypt, Jordan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Oman, Pakistan and representatives from OIC Secretariat, Islamic Development Bank (IDB), and Islamic Academy of Sciences (IAS). The Chairman Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, Secretary of the Ministry of Science & Technology, Chairman Pakistan Science Foundation and some other senior scientists from Pakistan also participated in the meeting.

This plan was approved as the ‘STI Agenda 2026’ at the First OIC Summit on Science and Technology held earlier this year in Astana, Kazakhstan and COMSTECH was entrusted with the responsibility to prepare its Implementation Strategy.

The major goal of the Ten Year Plan is to develop the scientific manpower and capabilities of the Islamic countries. For this purpose, the plan envisages a range of multinational Big Science projects as well as smaller collaborative and institutional support schemes.

The Big Science projects include setting up of medium sized astronomical telescope, plant gene banks, high powered computation centres and small satellites. A guiding principle of the Plan is to nurture the thinking mind by promoting the culture of Science, Technology and Innovation. The $2 billion plan will be implemented through contributions from member states and the Islamic Development Bank.

In the meeting thorough discussions were held on different components of the implementation mechanism such as composition of the steering and expert committees, identification of experts, nature and extent of national contribution from member states, determining priorities in implementation and the time lines etc.

Among other highlights were announcements of substantial funding for the plan. Initial pledges were made by Turkey and Egypt, while Uzbekistan has announced the setting up of a 4-meter astronomical telescope. Pakistan has already announced scholarships for OIC students as part of its commitment to the plan. Several other participant including