The Government of Italy will provide $65 million financial support to some Centres of Excellence in developing countries, including two Pakistani institutions - HEJ Research Institute, University of Karachi and Centre for Advanced Research in Molecular Biology (CAMB), Lahore.
The decision was taken on Tuesday at the meeting of the steering committee of the Network of Centre of Excellence held at the United Nations Commission for Trade Advancement (UNCTAD).
Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Professor Dr Atta-ur-Rahman, who is a member of the steering committee, attended the meeting. The proposal to create a network of Centre of Excellence was made by Professor Dr Atta two years back at a meeting of the UN Commission for Science, Technology and Development.
He proposed that the Italian government, which is supporting research and training activities of scientists of the Third World countries through International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy, should also support the R&D activities in the Third World countries by creating a network of Centres of Excellence and provide them financial support.
It was also decided that the Government of Italy would provide $6 million annually for training of scientists, workshops and long-term research programmes to eight Centres of Excellence. So far, four centres have been identified in addition to two Pakistani institutions.
The United Nations Commission for Science, Technology and Development (CSTD) and the host governments will also provide funding to these institutions for their programmes. Data is being collected to identify more centres to be part of the network.
Korean, Italian government and UN agencies (UNCTAD and CSTD) representatives attended the meeting.
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