AMMAN – The Chairman of the Arab States
Research and Education Network (ASREN), HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, and the
Secretary General of the Federation of Arab Scientific Research Councils
(FASRC), Dr. Abdelmajid BenAmara, have signed an agreement for cooperation in
the scientific, research and education fields.

The intended cooperation covers all relevant
infrastructure as well as tools and applications of scientific research, in
order to enable researchers, academics and students to develop their
businesses, and to transform research outcomes into products. 

During the signing ceremony, Dr.
Abu-Ghazaleh declared the willingness of the two sides to launch the ‘Arab
Innovation Oasis’ as a specialized entity in serving Arab innovations and
commercializing their inventions in ways that serve  Arab economies. 

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh affirmed the importance
of integrating the private sector in financing and marketing scientific
research results, and transferring them as products; expressing his sincere
wishes that more and more Arab scientists will be capable to innovate in all
fields for the benefit of the Arab world.

For his part, Dr. BenAmara extended his
pride in this cooperation, which enhances scientific research in the Arab
region, pointing out the importance of disseminating knowledge, as well as
raising awareness on the important role digital infrastructure plays in
research and education, and calling for collaboration through research and
education networks with researchers and academics at national, regional, and
international levels.

 According to the agreement the two
parties have  agreed to coordinate efforts to establish a specialized Arab
CONNECT for research and education to provide integrated communication between
the concerned bodies in the Arab countries, including universities, research
and education centers, and the research and education networks around the
globe. That is in addition to promoting cooperation and scientific dialogue,
and disseminating the concept of joint scientific work at local, regional and
global levels, taking into consideration achieving sustainable development
goals and meeting the needs of the Arab region in this regard.

They also agreed to cooperate in
supporting the building of research and education networks at  national
Arab countries’ level; regional level through the ministries of higher
education and scientific research, Arab universities and scientific research
institutions, and international supporting bodies and organizations.

 Other matters such as cooperation in the
field of open science and open access, and efforts towards establishing an
‘Arab States Open Science Cloud – ASOSC’ were also discussed. This aims to
ensure linking Arab libraries to a computer network and providing a unified
platform for dealing with research and education data, university releases and
researchers across the Arab region, as well as cooperation in building and
connecting Open Educational Resources (OER).