COMSTECH Contribution to S&T Capacity Building

The OIC Ministerial Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH) was established by the Third Islamic Summit held at Makkah, Saudi Arabia, in January 1981. Behind its set-up were the objectives to undertake follow up actions and implementation of the OIC resolutions, and to contribute towards strengthening the science and technology (S&T) capacity of the OIC member states through mutual cooperation, collaboration and networking of resources.

Since its inception, COMSTECH has taken many initiatives for the promotion of S&T in the OIC member states. Some of these programmes include research grants, training courses, travel support, institution building, establishment of Inter-Islamic Networks, Literature Search Service, etc. It also initiated a number of other activities summarized in Section 4 of this document. One of these is the establishment of COMSTECH Science, Technology & Innovation (STI) Policy Research Training Centre in 2006.

A major focus of COMSTECH has been on human resource development. Through joint research grants programmes with International Foundation for Science (IFS), Islamic Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), The Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO/EMRO), and Inter-Islamic Network on Water Resources Development and Management (INWRDAM), COMSTECH has awarded US$ 5.4489/- million to 518 projects during 1998-2014. Figure 1 gives details of the grants to various OIC member states, and Figure 2 depicts year-wise distribution of these grants
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