The Arab women researchers and sustainable development efforts
Arab women researchers and scientists play a pivotal role in sustainable development efforts, because it is an essential partner of a man in Arab societies .
The role of women starts from home, up to the various spheres of economic, social, cultural and other.
In this context, it is important to engage a woman of science and technology, through their efforts in scientific research and technological innovation fields, to participate in building the knowledge economy and society in the Arab countries.
So, the L'Oreal and UNESCO Fellowship, managed by the Arab Science and Technology (ASTF), is a window for the participation of Arab women, across the 17 Arab countries, benefiting from the Fellowship, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf Arab in the process of sustainable development, through the results of applied researches and studies, that can be employed and invested in the areas of industrial and economic development, to meet the needs of Arab societies and economies.
About the Fellowships
1. Up to 10 annual fellowships are awarded to women scientists in Arab countries, to realize important scientific research in life sciences, applied sciences and physical sciences, the research is to be conducted in Arab region.
2. Each fellowship is worth $ 20 000 to be paid directly by L’Oreal Foundation, and to used for research in Arab countries.
3. The Fellowships will be attributed to women scientists having obtained a Masters degree.
4. The selected beneficiaries will be awarded their Fellowships at a public ceremony.
With greatly appreciated initiative From Abdul Latif Jameel (ALJ) Company, who has chosen ASTF to manage ONE MILLION US $ grant to support Scientific Research and technology Innovation in the Arab World that take place twice a year.
ALJ grant aims to: Enhancing civil Research and Development activities in medical, engineering, applied sciences fields, as well as other sciences with relevant approaches.
In order to implement the desired goal from Abdul latif jameel Grants, ASTF has developed program to fund the scientific applied researches that aim to develop the economic and industrial fields in the Arab region. ASTF supervise over judging committee who working on evaluating the researches in order to select the winners.
The winners’ researches chosen according to specific scientific criteria, like: the scientific value of the project, the possibility to apply and promote the project, the Project’s value to serve the social development in the Arab world.
Abdul latif jameel (ALJ) Grant encourages the researches in a lot of fields, like: Medical, engineering, applied science, physics, water Desalination, electronics, agriculture, energy, environment and other fields. The program funds each winner project with 25,000 to 50,000 US Dollar.
One of third from ALJ grant directed to the researched that offer scientific solutions to the problems that face poor people, but this technological solution should be cheap, and suit the purchasing power for those people in order to enhance their life standard.
Dr. Maged Hussein Grant considered as one of the Iraqi initiatives that sponsored by the Arab Science and Technology Foundation, it started in November 2009, and included 39 participants and in the fall 2010, only 6 winners were declared.
Dr. Maged Hussein's Grant in the field of soil salinity and water management act as important step to complete the exerts effort in conference held in Iraq from 15th – 17th July 2009, where a lot of ministries participated, like: minister of agriculture, science and technology, water resource, high education and research minister, these conference considered as scientific forum to discuss the agriculture and soil’s problems in Iraq.
The Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF) cooperate with Iraqi Scientists and Engineers Programs (ISEP) and Civil Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) to manage Dr. Maged Hussein’s Grant in field of soil salinity and water management, these grant managed by Astf’s office in Baghdad.
The Goals of Dr. Maged Hussein’s Grant:
Dr. Maged Grant encourage to:
- Continue the Peaceful development in the scientific and technological fields in Iraq.
- Increase the no. of essentials and applied scientific researches that related to soil salinity and water management.
- Encourage the national and international efforts to analysis and solve the problems of high soil salinity in Iraq, and develop new techniques to manage the water resources and irrigation of the agriculture land.
The criteria to apply in Dr. Maged Hussein’s Grant:
The applicant should satisfy the following criteria:
- The applicant should be one of the Iraq residents.
- The applicant should work in the field of Soil salinity and water resource management.
- The applied research should related to soil salinity and water resource management fields, and serve the civilian needs in Iraqi community.
It Worth mentioning that the Dr. Maged Hussein‘s maximum fund level is 50,000$ for each project.
In the scope of The Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF) efforts to encourage the initiatives that work on improving and developing the scientific and technological field in the Arab world, ASTF have sponsored a lot of Iraq initiatives to develop science and technology fields in the Iraq.
Such initiatives help ASTF in assisting the Iraqi scientists, researchers, and engineering to flourish the researches fields which help in reconstruct their country.
The Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF) sponsored the international initiative to engage the Iraqi Scientific and Technological Community to develop their country. This initiative was executed in cooperation with Sandia National Laboratories, it started from 2004 till the end of 2006 as the primary stage.
A lot of international and national organizations contributed in this initiative, like: UNESCO, this initiative started by 5 development programs, and the value of its fund reached 217,000 US Dollar.
Through this international initiative, About 53 projects were funded, that included 41 researchers and 184 researchers assistant, in addition to the international cooperator with the Iraqi researchers. ASTF conducted comprehensive field survey to identify the main needs for the Iraqi scientific community, and about 435 new scientific ideas excreted from the survey’s result, besides focusing on 12 essentials scientific fields to develop Iraq.
In September 2005, an international conference was organized in Amman, Jordon to discuss the submitted scientific researches.