What happened in the first meeting of the 6th STEP steering committee ?

2019, 2, September

The 6th Science and Technology Exchange Program (STEP) will be held in Iran on November 9th to 11th, simultaneous with the Mustafa (PBUH) prize ceremony. In this regard, the first meeting of the steering committee held at the Mustafa (PBUH) Science and Technology Foundation on Monday, September 2nd, 2019, attended by:

1. Saeed Sohrabpour: Advisor to the president of the National Elites Foundation and Secretary of the Sixth Meeting of the STEP,
2. Ali Beitollahi: Director of the International Affairs of the Nano Technology Development Committee, Member of Mustafa (PBUH) Foundation board,
3. Shahab Esfandiari, Head of Iran Broadcast University and Scientific Secretary of Science Communication Committee,
4. Mohammad Hassan Saeedi: Head of Sharif energy research institute and Scientific Secretary of Water-Energy Nexus Committee,
5. Mahdi Sadeghi; Head of Faculty of Economics and Islamic Studies of Imam Sadegh University and Scientific Secretary of Financing for Science & Technology Committee,
6. Mahnaz Mollazeri, President of Alzahra University And the Scientific Secretary of the Women in Science & Technology Committee,
7. Mohammad Abdollahi; Faculty Member of Tehran University of Medical Sciences; and the Scientific Secretary of the Health Committee,
8. Mohammad Mahdi Jafari; member of the Board of Directors of the Ayandegan institute of policy studies and strategic analysis, and the Executive Secretary of 6th STEP,
9. Mustafa Zamanian, director of the Ayandegan institute of policy studies and strategic analysis and secretary of the steering Committee of the 6th STEP.

"We have held this Steering Committee to address the 6th STEP, which will be held in November 2019, in Tehran. The success of this important event will represent the Iranian quality.” Said Dr. Mustafa Zamanian.

"A total number of 85 prominent professors and scientists from all over the world will be attending the 6th STEP. Hence, we must use the full Muslims potential to disseminate science. Our aim is to build a stable capacity to collaborate with the scientists in the Islamic world." He added.

Following the meeting, Dr. Saeed Sohrabpour, the 6th STEP secretary, said: “STEP is an international event, which has been hosted by both Iran as well as other countries. This year the 6th program will be held simultaneous with the Mustafa(PBUH) Prize ceremony, in Iran.

He continued: "Top universities of Iran are partners of the 6th STEP and in the remaining two months we all will do our best to make the 6th STEP even better than the previous ones.

Mohammad Mahdi Jafari, who also presented a report on the process of STEP, said: "One of the main goals of this program is to create a platform to share the capacities and capabilities of the Islamic world, which may happen by the following points:

1. Identifying the best ways to form a science and technology network amongst the activists of the Islamic world,
2. Identifying the existing collaboration networks in the Muslim world and enhancing their role of networking,
3. Forming new networks in the field of science and technology of the Islamic world,

“STEP’s audiences are the scholars from universities, science and technology media outlets and facilitators in the Islamic world” Dr. Jafari continued.

He also pointed to the achievements of the previous meetings of STEP and said: “Until now, 5 STEPs have been held in 4 countries including Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Oman, which has been attended by more than 150 leading scientists and managers of Higher Education and Research Centers from 27 countries. In addition, several meetings have been held in the framework of Academia to Academia meetings.”

“Approving the establishment of a specialized working group with the participation of science and technology activists and the formation of the Islamic World Laboratory Network is another achievement of the past four years.” Said Dr. Jafari.

“The 6th STEP was designed around the challenges of the Islamic world and selected themes and issues including health, water and energy Nexus, scientific collaboration, financing for science and technology, women in science and technology, and science communication.”

“We expect more than 100 prominent science and technology activists to attend the meeting, and to date, the presence of 85 scientists from 31 countries has been confirmed.” Dr. Jafari concluded.

Dr.Ali Beitollahi further thanked the 6th STEP scientific secretaries and emphasized the importance of attending to the evaluation of the effectiveness of the science and technology exchange program.

At the end of the meeting, each of the secretaries of the scientific committees as well as the chairman of the executive committee of the Mustafa (PBUH) Science and Technology Foundation mentioned their plans for the upcoming STEP.