Past Events

Announcement of Second Refresher Course for Physics Teachers

“Problem Solving and Concept Development”

1^st Module June 25 – July 14, 2018

Organized by

National Centre for Physics, Islamabad

A three-week refresher course for young physics teachers at colleges and universities was conducted between 25th June and 14th July at the National Centre for Physics, Islamabad, with the collaboration of COMSTECH. The course titled “Problem solving and Concept Development” focuses on addressing the common deficiency of applying the knowledge base to actual problems. Each such Course consists of two 3-week modules that cover the full range of core physics at the Senior Undergraduate level. The recently concluded module was the 1st part of the 2nd Course and was participated in by almost 50 teachers from all parts of Pakistan. The full course consists of 60 one and one half hour lectures and tutorial sessions, equally distributed between 3 core areas of physics. Senior faculty from various Universities of Islamabad contributed the lectures. Poster

The program which is organized and hosted by the National Center for Physics, Islamabad was supported by COMSTECH as part of its capacity building efforts in Science and Technology.

Inaugural

Lecture of Dr. Shaukat Hameed Khan

Coordinator General COMSTECH

Introducing the Proramme

Dr. S. khurshid Hasanain, Director of Programme / Adviser COMSTECH

Faculty

Classroom

Dr. Moshin Siddiq

Director of the Prograzmme

Closing

Prof. Dr. Hassan A. Shah, Vice Chancellor, GCU Lahore

July 2-6, 2018

Overview

Rising populations, growing multi-sectoral needs, and increasing impacts of climate change have put Pakistan’s already limited transboundary water resources under immense stress. It is crucial to understand management of shared basins in a holistic perspective for equitable and sustainable future. Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is an effective approach for managing transboundary waters which requires strong interface of science and policy. LEAD Pakistan in collaboration with Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) conducted a Summer School on IWRM under its Project titled ‘Using Water Resources Systems Analysis to Guide a Transboundary Kabul River Water Partnership’. The event was hosted by COMSTECH Secretariat, Islamabad. The Summer School focused on integration of technology and policy issues. The program explored water management of Kabul River Basin as a case study for IWRM. The summer school counted with 23 participants, with 44% representation from females, hailing from districts across the country.

Objectives

Developing a holistic approach for integrated water resources management through enhanced understanding of policy and technology interface.

Building capacity of water professionals to develop a critical mass of future of Water Leaders.

Forge a network of water professionals to create a community of practice aimed at sharing learnings and creating synergies in their work.

Focus Areas

This program provided an introduction to policy frameworks and modeling tools for implementing Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approach in transboundary basins. The following areas were covered:

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)

Hydro-meteorological modelling and simulation tools

Political economy of shared river basins

Legal frameworks for transboundary waters

Case study of Kabul River Basin

Presentations

Day 1

Climate Change – Regional Perspective by Dr Furrukh Bashir

Hydrology of Pakistan by Sohail Babar Cheema

Indus Waters Treaty by Dr Shaheen Akhtar

Introduction to Regional Climatology Burhan Ahmad

Managing Shared River Basins Supply and Demand Challenges by Pervaiz Amir

Status of Glaciers in Pakistan by Adnan Shafiq Rana

Day 2

An overview of Weather Observation Practices over Pakistan by Fayyaz Ahmed

Concepts of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) by Dr. Hassan Abbas

Data challenges in Trans-boundary River Basins – Case Study of the Upper Indus Basin by Asif Khan

Observation through Remote Sensing by M Athar Haroon

Water Resources Management in Pakistan by Hassan Abbas & Asghar Hussain

Day 3

Climate Modelling Overview by Dr. Jehangir Ashraf Awan

Legal Instruments in International (freshwater) Law by Ahmad Rafay Alam

Methods and Application of Downscaling by Dr. Jehangir Ashraf Awan

Haleem Commission Report 2

Click here to download Agenda 

(Co-Organized by COMSTECH)

Advanced Biological Risk Mitigation Skill-Based Training (Wet Workshop)

July 1-5, 2018 Venue: COMSTECH Secretariat, Islamabad

Pakistan Biological Safety Association (PBSA) in collaboration with Fogarty International Center (FIC) hosted a five day Wet Workshop in COMSTECH Islamabad from July 1 to July 5. Participants were trained in biorisk management by Sean Kaufman, founder of Safer Behaviors. The participants were exposed to different scenarios in the lab such as evacuation, needle stick injuries, and dealing with an unconscious individual. The participants were also told to present on different topics on the last day, which also enhanced their communication skills while dealing with mental noise, disturbances caused by participants, and workshop scenarios. The number of participants was 30 and there was representation from all the provinces of Pakistan. It was concluded successfully, and eligible participants of this wet workshop will become trainers in their institutions and future PBSA workshops.

Arab Society of Fungal Conservation (ASFC), COMSTECH, Egyptian Syndicate of Scientific Professions, and the National Academy of Science & Research Technology (ASRT), in collaboration with Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund (MBZ), Suez Canal University (SCU), and Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) organized the 2nd International Conference on Mycology in the Middle East and North of Africa (MENA) on 16–18 October 2018 at the Suez Canal University Conference main Hall in Ismailia.

Click here to download Abstract Book

The International Conference on Mycology in MENA (ICM-2018) is the 2nd in an ongoing series of international conferences on Mycology, Fungi and Fungal Biology of Arab Society for Fungal Conservation. The conference aims to bring together leading academic scientists, researchers and research scholars to exchange and share their experiences and research results about all aspects of Mycology, Fungi and Fungal Biology. This conference is dedicated to the Memory of the late. Professor Abdel-Aal H. Moubasher (Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Assiut University) the God father of mycology in Egypt and Arab world. The conference dedicated two wooden trophies one for the name of late professor Abdel-Aal H. Moubasher and the other to the professor Waseem ElSeesy.

Over 250 participants (200 registered full delegates and around 50 accompanying persons) from 11 different countries, representing all regions of the world attended the ICM-2018, including Bangladesh, Brazil, Germany, India, Iraq, Italy, Malta , Pakistan, Switzerland, USA and Egypt. The theme was “Fungi in a changing World”, encompassing topics such as Bacterial-fungal interactions, beneficial and harmful effects, climate changes, clinical mycology, enzymes and their types, food mycology, fungal biotechnology, fungi and cultural heritage, fungal diversity and conservation, fungal identification and quantification, fungal immunology, fungal pathogens, fungi and ecosystem functioning, industrial mycology, lichens, medical mycology, mycotoxicology, structure and mode of nutrition, Systematics, phylogeny and evolution, and veterinary mycology.

The main conference consisted of one keynote lecture, six plenary lectures, and nearly 5 invited papers. There were 40 oral presentations and 25 scientific posters. The keynote lecture was by Waseem ElSeesy (Egypt) and entitled “Medicine in ancient Egypt”. The Six plenary speakers were: Ahmed Abdel-Azeem (Egypt), Andreas Bruder (Switzerland), Bhim Singh (India), Cristina Giovanna Varese (Italy), Michael Weiß (Germany), and Zakaria Baka (Egypt). In addition, Cristina Giovanna Varese (Italy) gave a workshop on the Thursday morning titled” Marine Fungi: the missing tile in the Ocean Biodiversity mosaic”.

The conference programme achieved its aim of encouraging ongoing international exchange and regional networking, especially among countries in Mediterranean, fostering exchange of expertise and learning through active participation, and stressing the relevance of mycology to current issues.

Additional information and conference abstract book can be downloaded at the ICM-2018 website

Six prizes were awarded during the conference as follow:

1- Best ASFC’s poster prize.

2- Best ASFC’s research by undergraduate Student prize.

3- Best MBZ’s bioprospecting & sustainable conservation prize.

4- Young Mycologist Award in Comstech’s awarded to outstanding mycologists early in their career.

5- BEST Al-Khafagy’ Prize (Fungal Biotechnology in Food Production).

6- BEST Al-Khafagy’ Prize (Fungal Biotechnology in DRUG Production).

Ahmed Abdel-Azeem

President of ASFC

(zemo3000@yahoo.com)

International Conference on Higher Education in the Arab World: Building a Culture of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. (Co-Funded by COMSTECH) Venue: Beirut – Lebanon.

RSC Pakistan 1st International Conference on Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery

18-19 October 2018

The RSC Pakistan 1st International Conference on Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery was successfully co-organized by the Royal Society of Chemistry and COMSTECH. The Quaid-i-Azam University, Abdul Wali Khan University, Punjab University and Women’s University, Swabi, also supported the Conference. The Conference was held between 18-19 October 2018 at the COMSTECH Secretariat in Islamabad. It was participated in by a team of 13 renowned scientists from Oxford University and other UK institutions (University College London, Bristol University, and Liverpool John Moores University). The conference was also attended by twelve scientists from eight OIC countries besides Pakistan. These included Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Oman and Palestine. Over two hundred local academics, researchers and students from 13 cities and 40 institutions actively participated and presented oral talks and poster presentations.

Muhammad Azam Khan Swati

Federal Minister for Science

and Technology, Pakistan.

Sir John Holman

Immediate Past President,

The Royal Society of Chemistry, UK.

The Inaugural reception ( Click here for Inaugural photographs ) of the Conference was graced by the Federal Minister for Science and Technology Mr. Muhammad Azam Khan Swati as the Chief Guest. The honourable Minister appreciated the commitment shown by the foreign faculty from European and OIC countries to attend the conference. He expressed his keen desire to be presented with tangible proposals from this Conference that may help promote medicinal research in Pakistan.

The Conference had a total of 6 sessions that focussed on various aspects of latest research in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. A total of 32 oral presentations, and 74 poster presentations were made. (Click here for Conference Programme ). Speakers from UK, Pakistan and other OIC countries described their most recent work in the area.

Dr. Khurshid Hasanain

Adviser COMSTECH

Dr. Amjad Khan

Program Chair

Prof. Dr. Micheal McDonough

FRS, Oxford University, UK.

Prof. Dr. Grant Churchill

Oxford University, UK.

Prof. Dr. Tim Claridge

Oxford University, UK.

Prof. Dr. Michael Heinrich

University College London, UK.

Dr. Rana Sanyal

Bogazici University, Turkey.

These talks also focussed on the challenges faced by scientists as well as by societies in providing affordable medicines to the world’s burgeoning population in the wake of the emerging anti-microbial resistance and newly emerging diseases. ( Click here for Speakers’ photographs) (Click here for posters session photographs)

Prof. Chas Bountra, Pro-Rector (Innovation) of Oxford University, identified the key priorities in medicinal research viz. need for novel effective treatments, increasing the affordability and safety of medicines and treatments. It was also highlighted that the cost of producing new drugs is becoming unaffordable particularly so due to the secrecy features inherent in commercial research.

This frequently leads to duplication of commercial research and ensuing costs. More collective and socially organized efforts for new drug discovery were suggested as an urgent need of the times. University-Industry linkages and the impediments to the same in Pakistan and other OIC countries were also discussed in detail.

Sir John Holman, the Recent Past President of the Royal Society spoke on the occasion and stressed the need for continued scientific collaborations between the scientists in OIC countries and their counterparts in Europe. He lauded the serious work that was presented by Pakistani scientists at the Conference and the promise it displayed for actual medicines. He lauded the efforts of COMSTECH (Click here for Members of COMSTECH Organizing Committee) for providing an excellent atmosphere and hospitality for the Conference.

On the sidelines of the main conference, a discussion was held between OIC participants (Click here for OIC speakers and participants pictures) and COMSTECH on the need to expand mutual collaborations and activities in this field. It was decided that an informal network of OIC scientists in Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery would be formed with the goal of forging collaborations, promoting exchange visits, and provision of analytical support facilities at the more advanced OIC centers. Various steps for promoting University-Industry linkages were also discussed. COMSTECH would prepare the Minutes of the said Meeting and share the same with the participants. COMSTECH would also follow up on the various proposals suggested by the participants with regards to establishing the agreed informal network.

08-10 April 2019

COMSTECH in collaboration with International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) and National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), Pakistan organized a three-day workshop on Genome Editing and Other New Breeding Technologies for Global Food Security. It was held on 08-10 April 2019 at the COMSTECH Secretariat, Islamabad.

This initiative is part of COMSTECH efforts to fulfill the expectations voiced in the 1st OIC S&T Summit in Astana 2017 for helping member states to address food security concerns in the face of rising populations and global climatic changes. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, who are leaders in the Islamic World in the new breeding technologies, have already formed a working group. This group collaborates actively in research and manpower development in these cutting edge technologies e.g. genome editing, speed breeding and development of crop varieties for saline and drought conditions. One of the goals of this workshop was to extend this group to include other member states and to move onwards for greater on-ground impact of these activities.

The Inaugural Session of the workshop was addressed by Prof. Mark Tester, Leader of The Salt Lab, King Abdul Aziz University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Dr. Munir Ahmed, Chairman Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC), and Dr. M. Azeem Khan, Member Planning Commission, Government of Pakistan and Dr. Shahid Mansoor, Director NIBGE. Prof. Tester highlighted the challenges being faced in providing sustainable food security and the opportunities provided by the new breeding stories including the success stories for various new crops. Dr. S. K. Hasanain, Advisor COMSTECH, explained the OIC initiatives being undertaken for capacity building of member states. Other keynote speakers highlighted the efforts of the Government of Pakistan in improving the agriculture sector productivity and the use of S&T for this purpose. They extended their full support in forging collaboration with OIC member states in agriculture.

The technical sessions of the workshop were addressed by 12 foreign speakers and Resource Persons from Australia, China, Germany, Turkey, Kenya and India. 19 participants from OIC states viz. Oman, Malaysia, Nigeria, Benin, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Oman and Palestine attended the workshop. A total of 125 participants attended, including local participants from academia and research institutions. The workshop provided introduction and application of genome editing and new breeding technologies to researchers and students working on crop improvement or genomic selection of livestock. The workshop had a mix of interactive sessions, lectures and hands on training sessions.

A special session chaired by COMSTECH was held on the sidelines of the workshop and attended by representatives of the participating OIC member states. The meeting resulted in agreement from all participating countries to become part of the working group which would be led by NIBGE. A second major outcome of this meeting was agreement on the scope and goals of a proposal to be submitted to the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and OIC for providing support to the activities of the working group for promotion of new breeding technologies. The proposal would be prepared by NIBGE (Pakistan), KAUST (Saudi Arabia) and NOH University (Turkey) and coordinated by COMSTECH.

COMSTECH, in collaboration with Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) held a consultation Workshop for Development of a multi-national Project proposal on “Promotion of Plant Genetic Resources: Use, Varietal Development and Integration in the Seed System” on 11th of April, 2019 at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) representative office, NARC in Islamabad.

Representatives from governments from five OIC Member countries, namely Pakistan, Iraq, Jordan, Oman and Azerbaijan participated in the workshop. The meeting was also attended by the Deputy Country Representative of FAO, the Chairman PARC, the DG NARC and Adviser COMSTECH. One of the outcomes of the meeting was the offer from Pakistan to provide access to OIC countries to store up to 5000 germplasm at its own gene bank, as safety duplicates.

This activity is an expression of COMSTECH efforts to address food security, farm productivity and preservation of plant biodiversity as key priorities under OIC STI agenda 2026, through cooperation between Member States and development of human and technical capacity. Currently few of the OIC member states have the adequate facilities and manpower to address the vital concern of preserving the germ plasm and seed varieties of their exiting crop varieties and for exchanging and integrating new crop varieties into their own agricultural systems. This activity was held to find practical ways to address these needs led by the OIC countries that are more advanced in this domain. This effort was initiated during a meeting organized by COMSTECH in March 2018 where an OIC Working Group on Plant Genetic Resources was formed. After thorough deliberations and consultations between members of this group, led by PARC, a Concept Note for a project proposal has been developed in consultation with the FAO that outlines the goals, activities and required resources for these purposes.

In this expert level meeting presentations were made on the status of plan genetic resources’ preservation, development, and integration in the seed system of each participating country. The technical, human resource and legislative needs for these purposes were identified. In the 2nd session of the workshop the Concept Note for the Project prepared by FAO and PARC was shared with the participants. The main objective of the proposed project is to enhance technical capacity and performance of concerned institutions of both the public and private sectors to broaden their collaboration in plant genetic resource use and crop variety development facilitated by rapid flow of newly developed crop varieties in the seed system, to enhance farm productivity and ensuring food and nutritional security. Consensus was established on the basics of the proposed project and technical details such as costing, modes and sources of funding, and timelines were discussed in detail. The project proposal would be developed by the PARC in consultation with FAO and COMSTECH. Azerbaijan offered to host the next meeting of the Working Group later this year.

AFFORDABLE & CLEAN ENERGY FOR ALL

29 – 31 July 2019, Malaysia

COMSTECH and Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) UKM, Malaysia jointly organized a 3-day workshop, from 29 to 31 July 2019 to explore the issues and to share experiences and knowledge on renewable energy between energy professionals and academics of OIC countries.

The workshop gathered energy scientists, experts and young scholars from several OIC Member States. The workshop continued for 3 days and experts gave insights into new technological advancements, R&D and commercialization of renewable energy technologies.

The workshop was organized for capacity building in the light of the core mandate of COMSTECH to strengthen cooperation among OIC Member States in science and technology (S&T) and to enhance their capabilities through training in emerging areas.

The resource persons talked about following topics:

Solar PV Technologies & Development

Solar Thermal Technologies & Development

Biomass Energy – Frontier Technologies

Smart & Micro Grids

Pico, Micro Hydro Power Plants

Low Energy Architecture and Thermal Comfort

Renewable Energy Installations, Policies, Pricing & Employability: An OIC Perspective

Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy Systems

Wind Energy Technologies

Marine Power Generation

The Future of Energy Storage Systems

Environmental & Economic Impacts of Solar PV Systems

On the final day, all the participants were given hands on training on HOMER Software. The HOMER Pro software is the global standard for optimizing micro-grid design, from village power and island utilities to grid-connected systems. It uses three powerful tools in one software, so that engineering and economics work side by side. The session was very interactive and all the participants learned the basics of using all the tools and dynamics of the software.

Resource persons and participants from Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Jordan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan, contributed to the workshop and shared their research and practices in the field of Renewable Energy (RE) technologies. A total of 38 participants from OIC Member Countries participated in the workshop other than Malaysia.

Students and researchers from different universities of Malaysia also presented their posters to showcase the advanced research being carried out in the field of renewable energy technologies. Their posters mainly focused on energy storage, fuel cells, integrated energy modelling, green buildings, etc.

On the concluding day, all the participants were taken to the SERI labs to showcase the research being carried out at their institute. SERI is already having many collaborative research projects with other energy institutes in OIC Member States.

Summarizing, the workshop explored the advanced research in renewable technologies, issues of cost and sustainability of various energy options, and challenges in the adoption of new technologies. The workshop focused on the analysis of different RE technologies, institutional policy and frameworks, and levelized costs of various RE technologies. The main suggestions to emerge from the workshop were:

to develop strategies for integration of RE Technologies

to have a sustainable energy mix

to design support policies that promote the integration of green technologies

to facilitate researchers from Member States for collaborations and funding opportunities

to facilitate Member States in enhancing their institutional capacity building

to develop a greener and sustainable transition to combat climate change

As a sideline activity, a brainstorming session on establishment of OIC Energy Working Group was conducted. Suggestions were invited from different stakeholders so as to formally establish the OIC Energy working group, in the third phase of this series of Energy workshops being organized by COMSTECH

February 22-24, 2016 at COMSTECH, Islamabad-Pakistan

Program Download

May 24-27, 2016
Venue: Forman Christian College University, Lahore