The Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) (www.comsats.org) was founded on the idea propounded by the world’s renowned scientist and Nobel Laureate, Prof. Abdus Salam in early 90’s. Overarching objective of COMSATS since its inception in 1994 was collective and cooperative endeavours of the countries belonging to Global South to keep pace with the rapid developments in the fields of science and technology and bridge knowledge and technology gap with the developed members of the Global North. COMSATS is now a significant Intergovernmental organization of 27 Member States from Asia, Africa, Middle East and Latin America. COMSATS draws its strength from its affiliated Network of 25 Centres of Excellence with expertise, inter alia, in Biotechnology, Food Technology/Agriculture, Health/Medical Sciences, ICTs, Clean Energy, Climate Change/Environment, Nanotechnology, Water Conservation, and Material Sciences. Inclusion of latest Centre of Excellence from Spain signifies a new initiative of opening an avenue of cooperation with a member of Global North – a milestone that will go a long way in building bridges to the mutual advantage.
The Secretariat of the Commission is hosted by its founding Member State, Pakistan, since October 1994, in Islamabad. The Prime Minister of Pakistan was elected as the first Chairperson of COMSATS during the inaugural meeting with participation from 36 countries. Currently, the Chairperson of COMSATS is the President of Republic of Ghana, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. Ambassador Dr. Mohammad Nafees Zakaria is the incumbent Executive Director of COMSATS Secretariat.
COMSATS’ activities and technology based solutions are aimed at sensitizing the countries in the South to the centrality of science and technology in the development process, adequate resource allocation for research and development, and integration of science and technology in the national and regional development plans.
The membership of COMSATS is inclusive. Currently, the COMSATS Membership exhibits a cultural, ethnic and religious diversity. The activities of the Network of CoEs are supervised by the COMSATS’ statutory body called ‘Coordinating Council’. A seasoned scientific expert from Egypt, Prof. Ashraf H. Shaalan is currently the Chairman of the Council. All the activities and programs are coordinated and facilitated by the Secretariat. The Network includes two Centres of Excellence from Pakistan; the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), and the COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), making headways in their respective fields, both nationally and internationally.
The statutory bodies of COMSATS, i.e., General Meeting, the Consultative Committee, the Coordinating Council and the Secretariat, administer the main functioning of the organization. The General Meeting of the Commission is participated at the summit level, two of which were hosted by the Government of Pakistan. The Ministerial level Consultative Committee has highest representation of the relevant Focal Ministries/Government Departments of the Member States (Pakistan holds the Chair of the Consultative Committee). The Coordinating Council comprises of the Heads of designated Centres of Excellence that are part of COMSATS’ Network. A Technical Advisory Committee, comprising lead Scientists and Technologists, also supports COMSATS with its valuable advice, as and when sought.
COMSATS has been contributing to the national development of the Member States, mainly by building capacities of their scientists, researchers, scholars, students, as well as policy makers. COMSATS works in partnership with a number of international and intergovernmental organizations, pursuing its organizational objectives, as well as the global agenda set out by the world community in the form of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Over the years, COMSATS has implemented various programmes of science and technology. Realizing that there was no Internet related infrastructure in Pakistan, the organization established the COMSATS Internet Services (CIS) in 1996. CIS is now the most diversified ISP of Pakistan offering technical services and solutions involving wireless/ on-demand broadband, domain & web hosting, Data Center services, video conferencing, website designing and development, Search Engine Optimization, Virtual Private Servers, networking, IT training, and Internet related research facilities. Presently, CIS has presence and operations in 9 cities across the country, and possesses a state-of-the-art training center.
In order to deliver technical and higher education in the field of information technology, COMSATS established the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) in Islamabad in 1998. The Institute was renamed as COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI) after attaining the status of public sector university and has campuses in seven cities of Pakistan. It is among the top five universities of Pakistan, and is ranked top most, in the country, in the field of ‘Computer Science and Information Technology’. The University offers over 110 academics programs with a faculty strength of around 2,100, including over 1,100 PhDs. The university is catering to the educational needs of the country and has produced over 100,000 graduates with current enrollment around 35,000. Under a program with COMSATS, CUI offers 100 post-graduate Scholarships to students from COMSATS Member States. Information on how to avail these can be viewed at: https://ww2.comsats.edu.pk/internationalstudents/COMSATS_HQ.aspx.
COMSATS is the pioneer of Tele-health services in Pakistan, which started back in 2001 as a pilot-project with the utilization of indigenous resources to provide cost-effective solution and access to healthcare service to the needy and marginalized. Currently, 29 Tech-enabled Health Clinics in Balochistan are providing tele-consultations to the people living in remote areas with its Resource Centre of Doctors located at the COMSATS’ Technology Park, in Islamabad.
Over the years, COMSATS organized, co-organized and sponsored about 450 capacity building events in its member states. Capacity building events held by COMSATS can be broadly categorized in the following: Scientific and Technological Education, R&D; Environment/ Climate Change; Industrial development; New technologies; ICTs; Health; Agriculture/ food security; Energy/ Renewable Energy Technologies; and Economy.
COMSATS has been facilitating joint research activities in various fields of science and technology in order to collectively address the common challenges being faced by the Member States. The focused fields included ICTs; Agriculture, Food Security and Biotechnology; Natural Products Sciences; Renewable Energy; Mathematical Modeling; and Climate Change and Environmental Protection.
In view of the world focus on Climate Change, COMSATS established the COMSATS Centre for Climate & Sustainability (CCCS) in August 2018. CCCS serves as a platform to connect member countries to identify potential areas of collaboration, share knowledge and expertise and offer their perspectives and solutions in addressing common challenges in the framework of the UN 2030 Development Agenda. The Centre currently has membership of 20 countries along with 24 institutions belonging to different regions of the world. So far CCCS has organized more than 30 capacity-building activities on a range of subjects in the context of the agreed SDGs. CCCS webinars have generated a lot of interest at the regional and international levels.
COMSATS Joint Centre for Industrial Biotechnology (CCIB) was established in April 2021, at the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology (TIB), under the framework of the National Center of Technology Innovation for Synthetic Biology (NC SynBio) of China, in order to promote meaningful cooperation among the Member States in industrial biotechnology. CCIB has so far initiated five high-level joint R&D projects involving over 10 research teams from the Member States; supported 14 young visiting scholars; published four Science Citation Index (SCI) papers; and applied two patents. CCIB has also significantly contributed towards capacity-building of the Member States by holding nine workshops/training courses in the areas of Bio-medicine; Bio-agriculture; Bio-energy; Bio-chemicals, future foods and Bio-materials.
COMSATS has recently ventured into a series of new initiatives in the fields such as Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, IT AI&SQA training courses, Precision Agriculture, Genomic Sequencing, Precision Medicine, Renewable Energy (Vertical Axis Wind Turbine), and Electric Vehicles. In this regard, important agreements have been concluded in the domain of emerging technologies. The National Genomic Sequencing program signed with Syndesis Health Inc., USA, will make the adopting country a hub of R&D, upgrade pharmacology practices in that country, develop new industries and enable acquisition of expertise in precision medicine field. Drone Technology agreement with a Polish enterprise to assist in relief efforts, monitoring signs that prelude to the disasters, assist in agricultural sector, and so on. Through the agreements signed, COMSATS has gathered resources and expertise in Electric Vehicles technology, Renewable Energy technology, Cyber Security, AI Applications, and SQA. COMSATS has also established a Technology Corridor with The Netherlands. These endeavors are aimed at assisting member countries in their technological pursuits to keep pace with the developments in S&T, socio-economic development and bridging the technology and knowledge gap.
COMSATS remains committed to its mission of scientific and technological progress of the developing world and is thankful to its Host Country, Pakistan, other Member States, Network members and partner organizations for their unwavering support in its noble pursuits.
