ASREN Supports Pan Islamic Research and Education Network Developments

With ASREN, headed by HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, as a member of the taskforce  

ASREN Supports Pan Islamic Research and Education Network Developments

RABAT – June 8, 2016 - The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) decided to establish the Pan Islamic Research and Education Network (PIREN), which will be comprised of the National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) of the Islamic states.

PIREN will be responsible to create and maintain collaboration between the research and education communities in the Islamic member states by providing necessary state-of-the-art e-services to help in boosting the innovation and enable R&E communities to collaborate with researchers in other member states and with the rest of the world.

For this purpose, ISESCO requested a technical taskforce meeting to set the objectives, vision, strategic goals and strategic plan for this network. The taskforce included members from Arab States Research and Education Network (ASREN), chaired by HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, and the NRENs of Pakistan, Egypt and Morocco, in addition to the participation of ISESCO.

The meeting was inauguratedby HE Dr. Amina Alhajiri, Deputy Director General of ISESCO in the presence of directors and experts from ISESCO. Dr. Alhajiri highlighted the importance of this initiative, which will help in boosting the research and education developments in the Islamic countries, and that PIREN is more than a regional network as Islamic countries are present in all over the world; therefore, PIREN should also cooperate with regional and international research and education networks.

Managing Director of ASREN Mr. Yousef Torman said that PIREN should work as a platform for collaboration rather than building a physical network like other regional research and education networks do.

The meeting was concluded by a document that detailed the structure, objectives, vision, mission and strategic plan for PIREN that will be approved and adopted by ISESCO.