Past Events

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

OIC Member States are developing their indigenous responses in medical technology to combat the pandemic. This section highlights some of the main efforts of our Member States.

To view the recent developments click on the following desired country name:

Iran

Malaysia

Turkey

UAE

Pakistan

Saudi Arabia

COMSTECH will continue to add the innovations in Covid-19 related technologies in other Member States as it receives updates.

Disclaimer:  The information has been gathered from respective official and private sources of Member States. COMSTECH cannot vouch for their accuracy in all aspects.

Weekly updates on COVID19

Breakthroughs in Global Research on COVID-19 ( 16-June-2020 )

Comprehensive list of all registered clinical trials currently underway in OIC countries against COVID-19

Speakers for clinical trial, capacity building in OIC states

Programme on best higher education practices during COVID-19 launched – COMSTECH would collaborate in this programme

International Seminar on COVID-19 Title: “Pakistan Randomized and Observational Trial to Evaluate Coronavirus Treatment (PROTECT)” By Prof. Dr. Ghazna Khalid

Date and Time: 5th June 2020, 3:00 pm PST through ZOOM Meeting

Click here  to watch the recording of the Seminar.

Ministry of IT & Telecom through IGNITE is Providing Funding Support to High-Impact & Short Time-To-Market Ideas, that can be developed to tackle the most pressing challenges by COVID-19 outbreak.

Coronavirus: Here’s everything you need to know about the Moderna vaccine

Pakistan Randomised Observational Trial to Evaluate Coronavirus Treatment (PROTECT) Underway.

AI-based COVID-19 Detection System

IsDB-TWAS Joint Research & Technology Transfer Grant 2020: (Quick-Response Research on COVID-19)

Disclaimer of Liability: The information provided on this website is for general information purpose only. These are the news of developments in the OIC region on COVID-19 pandemic. Merits and demerits has to be judged by the readers. This is by no means endorsement of the COMSTECH for any news or product.

Webinar on Status of STI in the OIC Region by His Excellency Prof. Dr. Adnan Badran

Date : 22nd June 2020,

Time: 03:00 pm Pakistan Standard Time ; 01:00 pm Jordan Standard Time; 10:00 am Greenwich Mean Time

Former Prime Minster, Jordan, Ex – Deputy Director General UNESCO Chancellor, University of Petra

International Seminar on COVID-19 Title: “Pakistan Randomized and Observational Trial to Evaluate Coronavirus Treatment (PROTECT)” By Prof. Dr. Ghazna Khalid

Date and Time: 5th June 2020, 3:00 pm PST through ZOOM Meeting

Title: “COVID-19 Epidemiology Evidence Based Policy and Prospects for Vaccine.” By Prof. Dr. Saad B. Omer

Date and Time : May 6, 2020 , 5:00 am EST (2:00 pm PST)

Islamabad: Thursday, April 30, 2020

The Prime Minister of Pakistan visited exhibition on COVID-19 organized by Ministry of Science and Technology at COMSTECH. The Coordinator General, COMSTECH Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary (H. I., S. I., T. I.) visited the exhibition and attended the briefing given at the occasion.

Speech of Prime Minister

The exhibition was organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology with the objective to showcase Pakistan’s success in manufacturing various essential items, such as protective gears, ventilators, respirators, sanitizers and disinfectants and masks of various types. The coordinator General COMSTECH Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary (H. I., S. I., T. I.) regarded this exhibition an excellent example of converting a calamity into an opportunity for technological development of show-casing Pakistan’s technological breakthrough in other OIC countries.

Prime Minister’s Visit to exhibition stalls

The minister of S&T Mr. Fawad Chaudhary briefed Prime Minister about various initiatives which MoST has taken to meet the national demands for products required against COVID-19 infection. Minister of defence production Ms. Zubaida Jalal also spoke at the occasion. The Prime Minister speaking to audience, appreciated the efforts of scientists and technologists of Pakistan and emphasized the need of science and technology and higher education as primary attributes of national self-reliance.

The exhibit took place in the COMSTECH building at the constitution avenue.

The President of Pakistan is the chairman, Prime Minister of Pakistan is the co-chairman and the Coordinator General is the Chief Executive of COMSTECH which is the only OIC organization chaired by Pakistan has appointed, Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary as the Coordinator General of COMSTECH.

Title: “COVID-19 Epidemiology Evidence Based Policy and Prospects for Vaccine.”

By Prof. Dr. Saad B. Omer

Date and Time : May 6, 2020 , 5:00 am EST (2:00 pm PST)

Click here for Poster

Coronavirus disease (2019-nCoV) aka Covid-19 is an infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus i.e. severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, causing illness in humans and circulate among animals such as bats. The disease spreads primarily from person to person through small droplets, which are expelled when a person with Covid-19 coughs, sneezes, or speaks.

The disease was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China and has since spread globally, resulting in the ongoing 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic.

Robust response and scientific efforts are underway to curb this menace. On forefront is the development of vaccine. World Health Organization (WHO) has 76 vaccine candidates against Covid-19 so far among which only 5 are under clinical evaluation. These 5 may have to prove their worth through rigorous follow up and testing.

COMSTECH has arranged web based seminar to discuss Covid-19 epidemiology and its ramification for wider public health and health sciences particularly for the OIC member states. Prof. Dr. Saad B. Omer is invited for this seminar.  In this talk, Prof. Omer will delve into insights of Covid- 19 epidemiology globally. He will discuss prospects, rigors and future predicaments for the Covid- 19 vaccine production.

Speaker’s Profile:

Prof. Dr. Saad B. Omer is the founding Director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, and a Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the World Famous Yale University, Schools of Medicine and Public Health, USA.  He has conducted studies in the United States, Guatemala, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa and other OIC states. Dr Omer’s research portfolio includes clinical trials to estimate efficacy and safety of maternal and/or infant influenza, pertussis, polio, measles and pneumococcal vaccines and trials to evaluate drug regimens to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV. He has published over 280 papers in peer reviewed journals and has mentored over 100 junior faculty, clinical, and research post-doctoral fellows and PhD and other graduate students. Prof. Omer’s insight about pandemics and their impact is unique and praise worthy.

Procedure to join:

Step 1: Download software zoom for this web based seminar (https://zoom.us/)

Step 2: Send your request to join this seminar at khazima@comstech.org. Pl. note you need to send your Name, Email address, Affiliation, Profession, level of education in this email. 

Contact Information:

Address: COMSTECH Secretariat, 33-Constitution Avenue, G-5/2, Islamabad

Phone No. : 92 51 9220681-3

Fax : 92 51 9211115, 9220265, 9205264

Email: khazima@comstech.org ; comstech@comstech.org

Islamabad: 1st June, 2020: Coordinator General COMSTECH, Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary requested all OIC member states to support the plight of refugees during COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Choudhary mentioned that it has been established scientifically that malnourished refugees, living in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions are especially vulnerable to infections. He recognized that we Muslims understand the importance of serving refugees in the Islamic world. He pointed that the significance of refugees is deep rooted in Islam’s commitment to generosity, hospitality and non-discriminatory protection as taught in Islamic tradition. He hoped that as Pakistan has protected Afghan refugees for over 40-years with the sincerity and belief in basic human dignity, our brothers and sisters in the Muslim Ummah through ties with this august forum of OIC will pledge their support to do the same.

Coordinator General COMSTECH highlighted that many OIC member states including Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Turkey have been generously hosting millions of refugees and emphasized, with this background in mind, we are acutely aware and recognize that there is an urgent need to configure the far-reaching impact of conflict, poverty and displacement in OIC member states. Prof. Choudhary indicated that it is in recognition of the potential threat of starvation and disease arising from the rapid spread of COVID-19 in refugees in OIC member states.

In view of these considerations, He appealed for OIC assistance, through its own offices, offices of UNHCR and other agencies, be mobilized on priority basis to protect the millions of refugees in member states. He recommended to develop and implement a special relief package to provide monetary and technical assistance to refugees that provide food, essential medicines, masks, hand sanitizers and other such essential relief items.

Coordinator General COMSTECH showed his confidence that with the support of OIC member states, we will uphold our Muslim tradition, derived from the deep-rooted Muslim faith that “in the face of the world’s calamities, all sons of Adam are equal”. He hoped that we shall persevere in protecting the most vulnerable as well as upholding the rights of refugees in our communities and work together in realizing the long-standing principles of international solidarity and burden sharing at this critical conjuncture.

June 04, 2020: H.E. Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, Coordinator General COMSTECH met with H.E. Ambassador Sohail Mahmood, Foreign Secretary of Pakistan in his office on Thursday, 4th June, 2020.  Mr. Muhammad Kamran Akhtar, Director General (ACDIS) and Mr. Tariq Karim, Director General (EC & OCI), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) were also present in the meeting.

The Coordinator General COMSTECH discussed with the Foreign Secretary, new programs and activities of COMSTECH initiated after assumption of Charge of the office of Coordinator General COMSTECH and sought support of the Foreign Office.  The matters related with regards to COMSTECH – MoFA collaboration in Science Diplomacy initiative and Capacity Building Programs across the OIC region were also discussed.  The Foreign Secretary assured the Coordinator General COMSTECH of his full support in launching of new initiatives.