Formation of startups and new companies
Commercial exploitation of science, technology, and novelty
System of laws, regulations, strategies, and funding priorities
Discovery and creation of new knowledge of the natural world
Technological Advancements in the world.
Specialist R&D funds levied on business must build organisations that offer short-term benefits through a clear strategy, says Athar Osama.
Just under a decade ago countries in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) signed a science vision 1441 (which coincides with year 2020). Collective spending on research and development (R&D) in the Islamic World was a mere tenth of what the developed world spent. Since then, some progress has been made to increase investment.
But the strong political will needed to undo science under-funding in the Muslim world has been extremely hard to find.
Most OIC members suffer resource constraints that are exacerbated by policy instability, poor governance, and endemic corruption. Faced with the challenge of choosing between the ‘real’ needs of healthcare, literacy, and social welfare, and the ‘promised’ benefits of science, the latter has often cut a sorry figure.
For some time now, several countries have been experimenting with using dedicated R&D funds to get around this problem. But the funds’ performance leaves much to be desired. It’s time for a re-think.
The number of female researchers in the Islamic World is above average, but this does not translate to the quality of their participation, says Athar Osama.
Women’s limited participation in the scientific labour force — particularly at the highest echelons — may be one of the most persistent and slow-moving demographic characteristics in the scientific world today. A report released last month by the US National Science Foundation suggests that women scientists are at the bottom of the salary ladder by the time they reach mid-career. [1]
Globally, the reasons for this lack of participation — such as sociocultural attitudes and the demands of a family �...
Critical debate is needed to resolve science-Islam divisions and ensure that knowledge flourishes in the Muslim world, says Athar Osama.
Last month, two noteworthy events took place that, although primarily involving UK Muslim communities, may have consequences throughout the Islamic world.
The first was a conference by The Deen Institute, with the provocative title ‘Have Muslims Misunderstood Evolution?’. This London event brought together a mix of European and North American scholars to discuss modern and traditional Muslim perspectives on the science of evolution and its place in Muslim theology.
The second, a workshop called ‘Islam and Science...
Entrepreneurial initiatives to provide vital jobs must adjust to the tough enterprise environment or risk underperforming, says Athar Osama.
In many Islamic countries, as much as two-thirds of the population is under the age of 25. This puts tremendous pressure on governments to create economic growth that can provide hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of jobs each year. And the challenge is getting steeper by the day. According to the World Economic Forum, the Middle East and North Africa region needs to create 75 million jobs by 2020 — a jump of more than 40 per cent on the number in 2011 — just to keep employment close to current levels. [1]
Wi...
By:Athar Osama
Published on SciDev.Net on 12 October 2012
Muslim countries must alter their stance on the social sciences if they are to use technology to its full potential, says Athar Osama.
The last two centuries have reduced global hunger, poverty, and disease in ways that were previously unimaginable. The accelerating pace of technological development — computing, the Internet, the information and genetic engineering revolutions — only promises greater progress in coming decades.
But getting these developments to the people who need them is far from an exact science, as recent development experience has shown . For example, mechanisms for producing c...
The Islamic world’s current science effort is on life support and without major ‘surgery’ could be yet another policy failure, says Athar Osama.
In 2007, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) created the Science, Technology and Innovation Organisation (STIO) to jumpstart science cooperation among its 57 member countries. Three years later, a founding meeting approved an annual budget of US$70 million, with four founding members — Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and and Syria — committing US$5 million each to the budget.
To date, 20 countries have joined STIO — but none has honoured its financial commitment, according to the organisatio...
By Zakri Abdul Hamid –
Science Adviser to the Prime Minister of Malaysia
For Malaysia, the past three decades have been a period of rapid and sustained growth. Measuring growth with the traditional Gross Domestic Product yardstick, Malaysia’s economy has increased more than a hundredfold. Over the past four decades, we have averaged nearly 7% annual growth. Poverty rates have fallen from 49%, to less than 4%. Per-capita GDP has risen from US$370, to more than US$9,000.
This growth has been matched by a fundamental change in the structure of our economy. Like many Asian countries, we have moved from a basis of agriculture and raw commodities to a multi-sector eco...
By: Dr. Athar Osama
Muslim-Science.Com met with Tan Sri Dr. Omar Abdur Rahman, Mahathir’s Science Advisor for over a decade and half and, the “prime mover” behind Mahathir Mohammed’s vision of a Knowledge-driven Malaysia. A deeply humble man, Tan Sri Omar insists that Mahathir was a science policymaker par excellence in his own right and that he would hardly have needed a science advisor. However, he played a critical role in providing scientific credibility to Mahathir’s plans and helping the Prime Minister reach out to the scientific community to build support for his policies.
As Malaysia’s first and longest serving Science Advisor – a position t...
