COMSATS’ delegation under the leadership of the COMSATS Executive Director Dr S M Junaid Zaidi visited UNESCO Headquarters to reinforce the existing collaboration and breaking new grounds for joint working between the two organizations.
Meetings were held with Dr Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences and Dr Peggy Oti-Boateng, Director of the Division for Science Policy and Capacity-Building, highlighting COMSATS’ interest in institution building in the South, said a message received here.
A prominent example of the same was quoted by Dr Zaidi was recent establishment of a Centre for Climate and Sustainability to provide a platform for advocacy, coordination and collaboration in the area of climate sustainability.
Possibilities explored led to likelihood of establishment of a Science Park jointly by UNESCO, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI) and relevant institutions in Ghana. UNESCO’s experience in this domain would help materialize such a project successfully.
UNESCO’s experience for research commercialization as well as initiatives for development of University-Industry relationship was also offered to help COMSATS member states.
Discussions with Dr Firmin Edouard Matoko, Assistant Director-General for Priority Africa and External Relations Programme and his colleagues helped explore possibilities of collaboration with COMSATS under Africa Priority Programme.
Other important meetings held on the occasion include those with Moez Chakchouk, Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information and Dr Neelofer Shahzad. The former was highly appreciative of COMSATS’ activities in the field of information technology and expressed willingness to work jointly on smart cities for sustainable development.
During the discussion with the latter “Dr Abdus Salam Award for Best Scientist” and “COMSATS-UNESCO Edhi Humanitarian Award” were considered. It was also suggested that COMSATS may offer scholarships to young scientists from COMSATS-UNESCO common member countries.