![]() ![]() In the early 2000s, several member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) embarked on a concerted drive to improve their science and innovation performance: primarily the oil and gas-rich Gulf economies, but also Egypt, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey. ![]() ![]() And while the symbolism of the Sesame project was rightly celebrated, there was little of the outright optimism that characterised these debates ten or fifteen years ago. But the meeting also provided an opportunity to take stock of the state of science across the Middle East and wider Islamic world. In its final declaration, the World Science Forum called for more scientific cooperation to promote peace and address regional challenges. ![]() Jordan is also home to the Middle East’s first advanced light source facility – the Synchrotron-Light for Experimental Science and Applications, or Sesame – which was inaugurated earlier this year as a shared resource for researchers from Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, the Palestinian Authority and Turkey. It was a landmark moment for Jordanian science, and a tribute to the vision of Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan, president of Jordan’s Royal Scientific Society, who is in the vanguard of a new generation of leaders championing science and innovation in the region. L ast week, almost 3,000 scientists and policymakers from 120 countries gathered on the shores of the Dead Sea in Jordan for the 2017 World Science Forum. ![]()
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