KazNU attended at 25th Meeting of COMSATS Coordinating Council

Deputy Dean for Scientific Innovation Activities and International Cooperation of the Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology, PhD Gaukhar Datkhabayeva attended at 25th Meeting of COMSATS Coordinating Council (remotely) with the report “Cooperation of COMSATS with the Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology of al-Farabi Kazakh National University”.

The 25th Meeting of the Coordinating Council of the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS), held from September 10-12, 2024, at the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology (TIB), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), focused on promoting science and technology collaboration within the Global South. Around 60 delegates attended, including COMSATS Council members, its Technical Advisory Committee, and representatives from partner organizations.

Key Highlights:

• Opening Ceremony: Prof. Dr. XIANG Hua, TIBCAS Deputy Director-General, shared TIBCAS’s achievements in South-South cooperation and emphasized the institute’s commitment to the COMSATS Joint Centre for Industrial Biotechnology (CCIB), a collaborative project between TIBCAS and COMSATS.

• COMSATS' Mission: Ambassador Dr. M. Nafees Zakaria, COMSATS Executive Director, reiterated the organization’s role as an international platform for science and technology cooperation, encouraging Member States to boost R&D investments to support sustainable development.

• Presentations and Discussions: Representatives from 16 COMSATS Centres of Excellence (including Al-FarabiKazakh National University) presented their contributions to South-South Cooperation and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), highlighting future plans for collaboration.

• Biomanufacturing Side Event: Aligned with the UN Day for South-South Cooperation, this event, held on September 12, centered on biomanufacturing as a path toward sustainable development in the Global South. Prof. Dr. SUN Jibin, founding director of CCIB, spoke on innovations and challenges in biomanufacturing and its role in sustainable growth.

As described at the website of Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, which was hosted the 25th Meeting of COMSATS Coordinating Council, COMSATS has following background:

Background:

COMSATS is an inter-governmental organization established in 1994, which strives to promote S&T based South-South cooperation among the developing countries with an aim to catalyze their sustainable socio-economic development. At present, COMSATS has 27 Member States and operates a Network of S&T Centres of Excellence having 25 members from around the globe. Under the nomination of the MOST of China, TIBCAS became the 22nd Centre of Excellence of COMSATS in 2018. As a joint Centre, established by TIBCAS and COMSATS in 2021, CCIB made a series of achievements in collaborative research on applicable technology, talent cultivation and capacity building, and was selected as the Good Practice in South-South Cooperation & Triangular Cooperation by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) and into the Enhancing Scientific Research Capacities Exhibition in the 1st Belt and Road Conference on the Science and Technology Exchange.

The Coordinating Council meeting provides an important platform to the organization in promoting deeper understanding among the Council members and thus encourage greater international cooperation. In 2019, TIBCAS held the 22nd meeting of the Council, while this year it held the 25th Meeting with the support of MOST of China and CAS.