ECOSF Outgoing Founding President Prof. Soomro visits Iranian Institutions for Promotion of Youth Engagement, Scientific Research Collaboration, Science Literacy and S&T based Business Development

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Science education across the levels, engagement of youth, research collaboration, public literacy of science and STI based business development are the key areas for an overall socioeconomic development and cultural integration in the ECO Region. The ECO Science Foundation through its diverse programmes has been pursuing above concepts and goals. It is in this context that the outgoing and Founder President Prof. Manzoor Hussain Soomro who completed his tenure on 10 August 2022, was encouraged by the incoming President of ECOSF Prof. Seyed Komail Tayebi to meet up an earlier commitment and visit some Iranian collaborating institutions.

The visit to different institutions and interaction of Prof. Soomro in Iran during the mission are briefly highlighted below.

1. Meeting with the Jamili Charity Foundation and the Young Scientists Festival Organizers (27 August 2022)

Facilitated by the International Office of the University of Tehran and collaborating scientists from the University, Prof. Masoumeh Malek and Prof. Alireza Sari, organized a visit to the headquarters of the Jamili Charity Foundation of Iran in Tehran. The CEO of the Foundation Mr. Ibrahim Jamili and his team warmly welcomed Prof. Soomro. They briefed and updated the gust about their activities especially the last five Young Scientists Festivals (YSF), that have become a hallmark of the Jamili Foundation. The Director of YSF Dr. Shadi Jamili, shared the mechanism of organizing the festivals and the plan for 6^th YSF ahead. She informed Prof. Soomro that the participants of the Festivals, and the competitors of various contests are fresh and young Ph.D. scientists and scholars and the mentors and Committee leaders are the senior and mid career scientists from various universities and institutions from across Iran but most from University of Tehran because of its forthcoming approach.

Prof. Soomro, appreciated their efforts and congratulated the CEO Mr. Jamili for supporting the YSF activities through their corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds from their Jamili group of companies. He then shared the aims and objectives as well as the ongoing activities of ECO Science Foundation especially the youth, IBSE and teenager maker camps programmes in collaboration with the Belt and Road International Science Education Consortium (BRISEC), of which Prof. Soomro is a Vice President. Dr. Soomro, also suggested to the YSF to become member of the BRISEC with the assurance that he will support the membership application of YSF Iran.  

2. Meetings in the MSRT and University of Tehran

An attempt was made to call upon the Vice Minister for International Affairs in the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology (MSRT) of Iran; however, since the Vice Minister Dr. Haddadi was not available during the stay of Prof. Soomro in Tehran, a meeting with the International Office of the University of Tehran (UoT) was held with Prof. Masoumeh Malek and her team. The issue of financial contributions from MSRT Iran to ECOSF through the International Office of Tehran that had been agreed in principle by the two organizations, was discussed. It was informed by the UoT that MSRT has not moved in the agreed upon modus operandi mainly because there was change of guard in the wake of last general elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran. It was thus agreed that the matter would have to be looked into afresh by the new ECOSF leadership in consultation with MSRT and perhaps the MFA of Iran.

3. ECOSF Presentation at and Interaction with the Isfahan Chamber of Commerce, Mining and Agriculture at Isfahan, Sept 1, 2022

The Chamber of Commerce, Mining and Agriculture Isfahan had requested ECOSF for possible cooperation and had requested for a presentation on sustainable development with particular reference to technological development and water use efficiency. It was in this context that Prof. Soomro after participation the Congress of Biology at Sharekord, visited the nearby Isfahan on 1^st Sept and upon the invitation of the Chamber and coordination by the Director for R&D Dr. Zahra Zamani, made a presentation to members of the Chamber, business persons and research scholars from the universities including; the University of Isfahan, Isfahan University of Technology and the University of Medical Sciences. The session/seminar was chaired and moderated by the esteemed Chamber Board Member and Representative for Agriculture- Mr. Mohamad Sadeghi and assisted by Dr. Zahra Zamani.

Title of the hour-long presentation was, “Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Need for Innovation in the Wake of Climate Change” and it after introduction of ECOSF spoke about the new President of ECOSF Prof. Seyed Komail Tayebi who happens to be from the University of Isfahan and had been interacting with the Chamber in the past. Afterwards, Prof. Soomro shared the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the UNESCAP Framework to attain SDGs with citizen centric approach that ECOSF follows in its programmes. The presenter then went on to talking about the global developmental challenges, the processes of climate change and recent calamities of rains and flooding in Pakistan, and possible ways to tackle those including the need for continuous innovation, science literacy of public and science education for the younger generation. He shared the programmes of ECOSF for STEM education through IBSE and the capacity building programme of STI based business development together with Beijing Technology and Business university (BTBU) under the Belt and Road Programme of China, of which the ECOSF is a strong collaborator.

Dr. Soomro then dwelt upon the water-energy-food nexus and the need for specific actions thereby emphasizing on the efficient use of clean energy and green technologies to be prepared and sustain the climatic threats to food. He also shared the status of per capita water availability in the ECO member countries whereby Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are the water rich countries while others in the region are water stressed countries. Thus, innovative approaches would have to be opted for, the speaker stressed upon. He highlighted that from 70% to 90% fresh water consumer is the agriculture sector, thus he proposed some option as enlisted below.

• Go organic
• Opt for smart water systems powered through renewables
• Optimize watering times
• Choose more drought-tolerant crops
• Store rain water
• Better soil quality
• Rotate crops

At the end, the presenter made some recommendations as under.

• There are strong interlinkages among food production, land use, energy and water.
• Promote renewables, conserve energy, employ efficient and smart irrigation and agriculture practices
• Policy decision-making needs to take these interlinkages into account.
• An integrated approach that simultaneously takes them into account is advisable.
• Integrated narratives are useful, but numbers are needed, suggesting the use of quantitative models.
• Key Interventions on policy & academic side:

1. Implementing STEM Education through Inquiry Based Science Education- IBSE
2. Increasing the quality of physical infrastructure (laboratories, innovation hubs, science parks, maker spaces and Internet infrastructure)
3. Establishing innovation hubs in universities to nurture a stronger science- innovation mindset for entrepreneurship
4. Exposing students to problem-solving skills, critical thinking and innovation, S&T curriculum
5. Aiming for internationally accredited standards for research
6. Providing high-quality support services to entrepreneurs
7.  

Afterwards, the Sadeghi moderated the Q&A session. The Chamber members present, the university scholars & students and some representative participating from other chambers across Iran including the members of Iran Chamber asked questions and were calmly answered by the speaker Prof. Soomro.

The participant in the chamber hall and those online highly appreciated the presentation and speakers. The Chamber Board members desired to work with ECOSF in expanding their interaction with the Chambers of Commerce and Businesses in other ECO Member Countries. To this, Prof. Manzoor Soomro suggested to interact with Iran National Chamber and the ECO Chamber of Commerce and Industry.