Arab scientists meet on Qatar’s research vision

THE First Conference of Arab Expatriate Scientists (QFIRST 2007) opened yesterday in the presence of its patron, Qatar Foundation (QF) chairperson HH Sheikha Mozah Nasser al-Misnad, and a galaxy of dignitaries at the Sheraton.

The three-day event has brought together 450 leading Arab expatriate scientists, local scientists and decision makers to discuss and refine the national research vision of Qatar.

The opening plenary session, presided over by QF vice president for education Abdulla bin Ali al-Thani, featured four keynote speakers.
They were Philip Yeo (special adviser for economic development to the Singapore prime minister’s office), Sydney Brenner (winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine), Tidu Maini (executive chairman of Qatar Science and Technology Park, science and technology adviser to HH Sheikha Mozah) and Magid Abou-Gharbia (senior vice president, Discovery Research, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals).

In his introductory address, Abdullah bin Ali al-Thani recalled that IQ 2006, the founding conference held 18 months ago, was the first occasion that brought together a significant number of Arab expatriate scientists to realise Sheikha Mozah’s vision for a rebirth of the region.

“Since we last met, QF has made strategic progress in building a knowledge-based society and the Qatar National Research Fund, in particular, has received proposals to contribute to the development of the country and the region,” he said.
Observing that for too long the real assets of the Arab world were squandered, he said “it is time for us to emerge from our own dark age and give way to our renaissance.”

Cautioning that one weakness of “our region is that we often allow our imagination to race ahead of us and we fail to build a solid foundation” he called for careful steps if goals were to be achieved.
In the first keynote presentation, Yeo outlined Singapore’s transition from a labour-intensive economy to a knowledge-based one over the past 20 years.

“You need money, time and talent,” he said, adding that Singapore created four clusters of growth between 1986 and 2006.
They were industrial clusters for data storage, semiconductors, chemicals, and biomedical sciences, and the total market output stood at $136bn in 2006.

“Now biomedical sciences is the biggest industry, the vision is to make Singapore the ‘Biopolis of Asia’, and ‘Fusionopolis’ a dedicated physical science research facility opening in 2010 requires 3,000 scientists and 1,000 PhD students,” Yeo said.

He said Singapore seeks scientists and PhD students from across the world.
He explained that while the best students from Singapore are sponsored on scholarships, the best foreign students are brought onboard to pursue their doctoral work after which they have to work for five years and are given a Singapore passport.

Asked about the retention rate of these foreign students, Yeo said: “When you invest in 1,000 PhD students, you are lucky if you could get 500 to stay.”