Seventh meeting of policy-making council of the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize was held with the participation of the Chairman of the council Prof. Sorena Sattari, Secretary of the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize's Policy Making Council Mahdi Saffarinia, and other individual and legal members.
Coordinator General of Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation of the OIC (COMSTECH) Prof. Shaukat Hameed Khan, and vice-chancellor of the University of Karachi, Pakistan Prof. Muhammad Ajmal Khan also attended the meeting through video conferencing as the other member of this council.
In this meeting which aimed at finalizing the selection of the 2017 laureates, Sattari said, “A great work under the name of the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize is running now and whole amount of this prize is being financed by nongovernmental resources”.
Meanwhile the head of the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize scientific committee Hassan Zohoor presented a report on the committee performance about how the works have been reviewed and selected in primary and final stages.
“while primary assessment was done in February 2017, final selection was accomplished in May and extended until end of June. In this period 241 works from 34 countries were received by the Science and Technology Foundation (MSTF) office and were assessed,” Zohoor added.
Presenting a report on evaluating submitted works, Prof. Saeed Sarkar, the head of the group in all areas of science and technology said, “Ones who are not Muslim but citizen of OIC member countries can also be nominated for the Prize. Currently we have received lots of works by the scientists and researchers; but in selection process we ultimately select individuals who had an outstanding work along with a best résumé”.
During the meeting, the heads of scientific groups of the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize, also presented their reports on the process of evaluating received works and criteria used to select the appropriate ones, as the laureates.
As presenting a report on the performance of the MSTF, since the first round, Saffari Nia said that the call for the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize has been widely announced worldwide to more than 1622 scientists of outstanding scientific and technological levels in 30 countries, 363 university and research centers.
President of MSTF mentioned that the strategy and the road map of the MSTF have already been prepared which will be announced at the next meeting after the approval of charter.
“Through consultation and collaboration, we are trying to registration of branch offices of MSTF in different countries,” he added.
Referring Noor Student Competition as one of the MSTF events, Saffari Nia also said, “The ceremony of the first round of the competition was held on Tehran's Howzeh Honari last year. Of the 1600 submitted science movies, awards ceremony honored 200 students for their significant achievements. Yet the second round of Noor Student Competition; Recognition of Prof. Jackie Ying will also be held on September first, 2017, coinciding with the anniversary of Eid al-Adha.”
Noting to the MSTF project to involve university students, President of MSTF said, “we are on the verge of creating new club which will be called Safir Al-Mustafa(pbuh) and a scientific competition- under the title of KANS (Knowledge Application and Notion for Society). Similarly, in order to enhance cooperation between Muslim scientists across the world, MSTF has made a plan called Science and Technology Exchange Program (STEP) in Islamic Countries, which will be held annually in one of the Islamic countries”.
“Introduction of the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize at several scientific conferences, the membership of the ECOSF in the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize Investment and Endowments Fund (MPIEF), membership of Chairman of The Research Council of Oman in the International Advisory Board of the MSTF, production of more than 300 news and reflecting them by more than 400 media around the world, the production of 65 multimedia content and inquiring registration of the award winning prize in WIPO and other activities were some of the activities of MATF during this time,” he continued.
It is worth noting that second round of the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize will be awarded on December 3rd 2017 in Vahdat Hall, Tehran and the name of the laureates will be formally announced before the ceremony through a especial program.
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