The Pak-IIASA Collaboration Group held its second meeting at COMSATS Secretariat on July 26, 2011. IIASA (The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis) is an international research organization that conducts policy-oriented research into problems that are too large or too complex to be solved by a single country or academic discipline. Located in Austria near Vienna, IIASA is sponsored by its National Member Organizations (NMOs) in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The Pakistan Academy of Sciences is IIASA’s NMO in Pakistan, and Dr. Ishfaq Ahmad, Advisor to the Planning Commission of Pakistan, is a member of IIASA’s Council. COMSATS Secretariat is hosting IIASA’s NMO office in Pakistan at its premises since 2010. The first meeting of the Collaboration Group was held at the Secretariat on 19th May 2011.

The Group took note of Dr. Ahmad’s recent meeting at IIASA, Austria (June 27, 2011), which was held with an aim to boost IIASA’s ties with scientific and technical organizations of Pakistan and for the promotion of IIASA’s programmes for socio-economic development of the country. In addition, new trends and changes at IIASA, expected in the coming years, were also brought to the notice of the Group. Detailed discussions were held on the possibility of Pak-IIASA collaborative projects in the areas of water-management, climate-change, forestry, applications of applied systems analysis, capacity-building, poverty and population, flood controls in Pakistan, etc. Deliberations were also made on the concept project-proposals prepared by the members of the Collaboration Group as agreed in the previous meeting. It was decided that concrete projects should be developed on the basis of these concept papers for discussion and possible collaboration with IIASA.

The meeting concluded with a pledge by the participants of the meeting to continue strengthening their efforts to enhance Pak-IIASA collaboration.