ISLAMABAD: (Parliament Times) The Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) and the University for Sustainability announce a partnership to collaboratively advance science, technology and innovation for sustainable development and the promotion of peaceful coexistence necessary to accelerate a just and humanitarian transformation to sustainable development. With guidance, support and encouragement from leading scientists and statesmen and inspired by youth throughout the world our institutes are heeding UN Secretary General Guterres”s call to action.
Chairman of COMSATS and President of the Republic of Ghana, the Hon. Nana
Addo Dankwa AkufoAddo noted: "In the twenty-five years of its existence, COMSATS
has played a lead role in cultivating an enhanced culture of scientific and technological
co-operation amongst its Members, through capacity building, education and research
and development.” He continued: “The pivotal role science and technology play in
development is well acknowledged. Together with innovation, they have become the
new currency for development. Science and technology hold the key to finding
sustainable economic, social and environmental solutions to the many problems that
confront us. And these problems are shared from Algeria to Zimbabwe, and from Benin
to Tanzania, we face common problems.” Founding President of the University for
Sustainability, Dr Kenneth Stokes insisted that “with a responsibility to foster a better
social order, both at home and globally, the University has an obligation to engage with
the global South. For as the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated clearly neither walls nor
borders can separate crises in one part of the world from crises in another. Our
partnership with COMSATS is an important step to addressing common problems and
accelerating science, technology and innovation for sustainable development.”
COMSATS was conceived by Pakistani Nobel Laureate, Prof. Dr. Abdus Salam, in
recognition of the increasingly widening gap of scientific knowledge and economic
development between the North and the South. It is an intergovernmental organization
established by representatives of a group of Heads of State in developing countries to
help create a world where all nations are at peace with one another and capable of
providing a good quality of life to their populations in a sustainable way, using modern
scientific and technological resources. The University for Sustainability aspires to
become a world leader in championing sustainable development. Delivering
interdisciplinary programmes at the nexus of the fourth industrial revolution and the
sustainable development megatrends, the University and its global partner
organizations are committed to accelerating a just and humanitarian transformation to
sustainable development with challenge-driven education, scientific research and
innovation. Leveraging open science and open innovation; the University is a state-of-
the-art digital platform for and global network of universities and research institutes
accelerating breakthrough research and innovative solutions that catalyze
transformation at scale and at speed. The University and COMSATS invite in shaping
the future the world needs now and the future demands and synergize the experience
and reach of thousands of scientists and innovators of the global South to develop
resilient sustainable communities, societies and cultures. Let us turn knowledge into
action.
