World Science Day for Peace, Development marked on Sunday

ISLAMABAD, Nov 10 (APP):World Science Day for Peace and Development was marked on Sunday across Pakistan with a renewed spirit to pay more focus on the neglected sector of science and technology which is considered as a source of economic development everywhere in the world.

World Science Day is marked across the globe including Pakistan on November 10 through arranging different seminars, conferences, science competitions and discussion programmes with focus on this year’s theme “Open Science, leaving no one behind”.

Ministry of Science and Technology through its department Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF) will arrange a function to mark the day on November 11 (Monday).

Minister for Science and Technology (MoST), Chaudhry Fawad Hussain will be chief guest on the occasion and Secretary MoST, Capt (Retd) Nasim Nawaz will be guest of honour, an official of PSF told APP.

Ex-Director General, National Centre for Physics (NCP), Professor Dr. Hamid Saleem will present the keynote address with focus on the theme of the day while a young Science student, Mr. Yaseen Ismail who participated in Asian Science Camp 2019 at China will share his experiences.

Certificates and cash prizes will be distributed among the winners of Inter Board Science Essay and Poster Competitions while the awards letters to the students who will participate in the International Junior Science Olympiad will be given on the occasion.

The awards of PSF Crest will also be given to the position holders of Asian Science Camp-2019, the official added.

The World Science Day for Peace and Development, celebrated every year on 10 November, was established by UNESCO in 2001 with the aim of highlighting the important role of science in society and the need to engage the wider public in debates on emerging and important contemporary issues relevant to science.

According to UNESCO, this year’s theme is based on the concept of Open Science which is a burning issue in the scientific community and gaining increasing attention by the non-scientific community as well.

Innovators, engineers, tech developers, both from private and public sectors are embracing the open science and open innovation concepts. And policy makers and citizens are increasingly embracing the concept of open science as a tool for making science more accessible, the scientific process more inclusive and the outputs of science more readily available.

Thus, Open Science can be a game changer for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in Africa, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and Small Island Developing States.

UNESCO has a crucial role to play in raising awareness and leading the global dialogue on Open Science, ensuring that Open Science practices meet their potential in bridging the world’s Science Technology and Innovation gaps.