US-ISLAMIC STATES: Global Initiative through S&T

The US and 57 Islamic states across the Middle East, North Africa and Asia have launched the Global Initiative through Science and Technology, GIST, to advance scientific, academic and technological collaboration between America and the Muslim world.

The GIST inaugural event was held at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt, on 14 December.

GIST is one of the primary science and technology initiatives to be implemented following the historic address, "A New Beginning", delivered by US President Barack Obama at the University of Cairo in June 2009.

Funded initially by the US Department of State, the two-year GIST initiative will be implemented by CRDF Global, a non-profit US organisation with a vision of peace and prosperity through scientific collaboration.

Besides focusing on opportunities for mutual benefit through scientific, academic and technological collaboration between the US and Islamic states, GIST will help build sustainable science and technology excellence in the region.

To do that, according to the GIST website, regional experts and leaders will be engaged in a consultative process to address critical challenges in agriculture, energy, health and information technology. It will also establish a new mechanism for financing and implementing capacity building partnerships and-or support mechanisms for pilot projects.

In addition, GIST will establish a digital science library for Maghreb countries to facilitate access to international research, improve the communication of research outcomes and support regional and international collaboration.

Furthermore, GIST will organise training programmes to enhance research skills for scientists and researchers in needy countries, and a mentoring mechanism for students and young professionals will be set up.

A working meeting will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in February 2011 and a conference will be held in Morocco in June 2011.

The Malaysia meeting will brainstorm ideas around technological innovation and a first set of science, technology and innovation capacity-building partnerships. Technologies selected for funding will be unveiled at Morocco conference.

Hassanuddeen Abd Aziz, of the faculty of economics and management sciences at the International Islamic University Malaysia, welcomed GIST initiative, which he sees as "a good tool for promoting science development in the Islamic world, promoting universities-industry alliances, and facing huge problems hindering the advancement of technology".

These problems include low research and development intensity, inadequate technological infrastructure, limited high technology exports, inadequate numbers of researchers employed in R&D, low indigenous innovation capability, and low knowledge economy performance.

"Following GIST, technological growth must be sustained by setting up national programmes for enhancing human resource development and promoting the use of knowledge for the development of products and services," Abd Aziz concluded.