The Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) convened the Third Meeting of its Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) on 14 October 2025 in Amman, Jordan, under the gracious patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan, President of the Royal Scientific Society (RSS), Jordan’s premier scientific institution and one of COMSATS’ founding Centres of Excellence. Hosted by the Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT), the meeting gathered eminent TAC members and international experts representing diverse scientific and geographic constituencies of the Global South, reaffirming COMSATS’ mandate of advancing equitable scientific and technological development.
The high-level session was attended in person by Prof. Dr. Wejdan Abu-Elhaija from PSUT (Jordan), Prof. Haseena Khan from the University of Dhaka (Bangladesh), Prof. Rahmat Sotudeh-Gharebagh from the University of Tehran (Iran), Dr. Bolanle Ojokoh from the Federal University of Technology (Nigeria), Prof. Dr. Ishenkumba A. Kahwa from The University of the West Indies (Jamaica), and Dr. Chabi A. M. S. Djagoun from the University of Abomey-Calavi (Benin). The meeting also benefitted from virtual participation by Mr. Fernando Santiago Rodriguez of UNIDO (Vienna). The participatory composition of the TAC reflected the global diversity of COMSATS’ scientific cooperation framework.
The proceedings commenced with a comprehensive institutional presentation by Prof. Dr. Wejdan Abu-Elhaija, President PSUT, who introduced PSUT’s growing footprint in frontier domains including AI, cybersecurity, entrepreneurship, and green innovation, emphasizing the university’s alignment with national innovation priorities and international collaboration. Opening the session, Ambassador Dr. Mohammad Nafees Zakaria, Executive Director of COMSATS, reaffirmed the organization’s founding mandate, inspired by Nobel Laureate Prof. Abdus Salam, to bridge scientific and technological divides between the Global North and South. He underscored that emerging technologies, demographic realities, and climate imperatives demand a transformation in COMSATS’ operational mechanisms, network cohesion, and financial resilience. Prof. Dr. Marcelo Knobel, Executive Director of TWAS, acknowledged the historic intellectual convergence of both organizations and reaffirmed TWAS’ commitment to expanding co-programmed capacity-building, fellowships, and collaborative research aligned with the SDGs. Prof. Dr. Ashraf Shaalan, Chairperson of the COMSATS Coordinating Council, also addressed the TAC and stressed the vitality of joint actions to advance science, technology, and innovation (STI) for sustainable development.
The meeting focused primarily on reviewing implementation progress of COMSATS’ technical programmes during 2024–2025 and charting the strategic direction for the upcoming five-year period under the forthcoming Strategy 2026–2030. Discussions reiterated that COMSATS’ value proposition must be increasingly oriented toward economic competitiveness, industrial innovation, climate resilience, and social inclusion across the Global South. Members assessed and reflected upon COMSATS’ capacity-building initiatives, technology-transfer efforts, and the performance of its Network of International S&T Centres of Excellence, with a view to enhancing research connectivity, thematic complementarity, and equitable regional representation within the Network.
TAC members contributed rich technical insights on enhancing graduate employability and skills-market alignment, noting that emerging industries such as artificial intelligence, digital manufacturing, and clean energy require radically re-skilled human capital ecosystems. Issues such as entrepreneurship-enablement, innovation incubation, and financing mechanisms were discussed extensively, with emphasis on creating an enabling environment where youth can translate scientific knowledge into socioeconomic enterprises. The Committee underscored the imperative for universities and research institutions to institutionalize entrepreneurship-enabling policies and cultivate innovation-driven skill sets among youth, ensuring that emerging opportunities translate into socioeconomic value. Deliberations also highlighted the necessity of designing inclusive programmes that expand access for under-represented groups so that technological progress does not widen internal disparities within the Global South. Furthermore, the Committee stressed the importance of enhancing digital literacy, advancing technology-foresight capabilities, strengthening cybersecurity preparedness, and deepening science–policy integration so that COMSATS’ initiatives meaningfully accelerate national development trajectories.
Ambassador Zakaria presented key achievements under the COMSATS R&D Fund launched in 2022, which has supported applied research in indigenous electric-vehicle technologies, renewable power applications, climate adaptation tools, and biotechnology solutions within COMSATS Member States. It was stressed that future R&D initiatives should incorporate commercialization strategies, industrial co-creation, and measurable green-transition impact, enabling COMSATS to strengthen innovation value chains that benefit local economies.
A substantive presentation was delivered by Prof. Dr. Ashraf Shaalan, Chairperson of the Coordinating Council, offering a comprehensive and analytically driven overview of COMSATS’ Network of International S&T Centres of Excellence (CoEs) and their pivotal role in the Organization’s strategic architecture. He emphasized the Network as the foremost mechanism for capacity enhancement, technology co-creation, and South–South knowledge mobility, noting that each CoE has articulated priority thematic domains and specific cooperation services for the benefit of Member States, as consolidated during the 25th Coordinating Council Meeting. Highlighting the dynamic scientific landscape and shifting global innovation priorities, he underscored the imperative of expanding the Network through the inclusion of institutions with cutting-edge competencies in rapidly evolving sectors such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, clean technologies, and advanced industrial systems. His intervention reaffirmed that the CoEs constitute COMSATS’ most valuable comparative asset — an institutional engine capable of transforming collaborative research into scalable innovation, thereby accelerating socioeconomic transformation and technological self-reliance across the Global South.
Participants also exchanged views on the need for a stronger communication interface between the Secretariat, TAC members, Centres of Excellence, and national focal points. The notion of establishing a continuous, structured virtual platform for scientific coordination was welcomed as essential for year-round collaboration rather than periodic review. The TAC supported COMSATS’ intent to institutionalize annual TAC meetings as a formal governance mechanism to enhance advisory responsiveness.
In addition, Ambassador Zakaria shared ongoing institutional reforms designed to strengthen COMSATS’ operational architecture and international presence. These include the establishment of an International Division comprising nine cluster coordinators, one each for thematic fields such as biotechnology, ICTs, health sciences, clean energy, climate change, nanotechnology, and industrial technologies, nomination of which will be rotated among Member States. The vision behind this reform is to reinforce Members’ scientific ownership of COMSATS’ programme design and delivery, bolstering South–South cooperation as a practical and dynamic pillar of progress.
The Committee was also apprised of preparations for the Fourth COMSATS Summit (Heads of State and Government), scheduled for 2026 in Accra, Ghana. Members agreed that the Summit presents a decisive opportunity to expand COMSATS’ political support base and scientific influence, attract new Member States, including from the Middle East, Caribbean, and emerging scientific regions, and secure enhanced resource mobilization for flagship initiatives aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals.
Throughout the meeting, the TAC underscored the urgency of meeting global challenges including climate change, digital inequities, energy transition, health system strengthening, through integrated STI solutions. They called for leveraging COMSATS’ Network to accelerate the development and transfer of indigenous innovations, expand training and mentoring pathways, and foster collaborative research clusters that contribute to transforming the socioeconomic landscape of the Global South.
In their concluding remarks, Prof. Dr. Ashraf Shaalan and Ambassador Dr. Zakaria commended TAC members for their strategic counsel and reaffirmed COMSATS’ unwavering commitment to delivering impactful outcomes through South–South and Triangular Cooperation. The Third TAC Meeting thus concluded with shared resolve to scale up COMSATS’ contributions toward a more technologically empowered, resilient, and prosperous future for its Member States, advancing the legacy of international scientific solidarity envisioned by Prof. Abdus Salam more than three decades ago.
