Selection Process for the Mustafa (PBUH) Prize Nominees in Final Stage
It was attended by Sorena Sattari, Chairman of the council; Mahdi Saffarinia, Secretary of the Mustafa (PBUH) Prize's Policy Making Council; and other individuals and legal members.
Shaukat Hameed Khan, Coordinator General of Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation of the OIC (COMSTECH) and Muhammad Ajmal Khan, vice-chancellor of the University of Karachi, Pakistan, also attended the meeting as the other member of the council through video conferencing.
Sattari in this meeting said, "A great work under the name of the Mustafa (PBUH) Prize is running now and the prize is entirely financed by nongovernmental sources.”
Hassan Zohoor, the head of the Mustafa (PBUH) Prize scientific committee presented a report on the committee performance about how the works have been reviewed and selected in primary and final stages.
"The primary assessment was done in February 2017 and the final selection was accomplished in May and extended until the end of June,” he said. "In this period, 241 works from 34 countries were received by the Science and Technology Foundation (MSTF) office and were assessed.”
Presenting a report on evaluating the submitted works, Saeed Sarkar, the head of the group in all areas of science and technology said, "The ones who are not Muslim but citizens of OIC member countries can also be nominated for the Prize. Currently we have received lots of works by scholars and researchers. But in the selection process, we ultimately select individuals who had an outstanding work along with a best resume.”
During the meeting, the heads of scientific groups of the Mustafa (PBUH) Prize also presented their reports on the process of evaluating the submitted works and the criteria used to select the best ones as the laureates.
Presenting a report on the performance of the MSTF since the first round, Saffarinia said that the call for the Mustafa (PBUH) Prize has been widely announced worldwide to more than 1622 scientists and scholars of outstanding scientific and technological levels at 363 university and research centers in 30 countries.
The president of MSTF said that the strategy and the road map of the MSTF has already been prepared and will be announced at the next meeting after the approval of the charter.
"Through consultations and collaborations, we are trying to finalize registration of branch offices of MSTF in different countries,” he added.
Referring to the Noor Student Competition as one of the MSTF events, Saffarinia also said, "The ceremony of the first round of the competition was held on Tehran’s Howzeh Honari last year. Of the 1600 submitted science movies, the Awards ceremony honored 200 students for their significant achievements. Yet the second round of the Noor Student Competition; Recognition of Prof. Jackie Ying will also be held on September 1, 2017, coinciding with Eid al-Adha.”
The president of MSTF also highlighted the MSTF project to involve university students, saying, "We are close to creating a new club which will be called Safir Al-Mustafa (PBUH) and a scientific competition under the title of KANS (Knowledge Application and Notion for Society). Similarly, in order to enhance cooperation between Muslim scientists across the world, MSTF has devised a plan called Science and Technology Exchange Program (STEP) in Islamic Countries, which will be held annually in one of Islamic countries.”
He added that introduction of the Mustafa (PBUH) Prize at several scientific conferences, membership of the ECOSF in the Mustafa (PBUH) Prize Investment and Endowments Fund (MPIEF), membership of Chairman of the Research Council of Oman in the International Advisory Board of the MSTF, production of more than 300 news data-x-items and their coverage by more than 400 media outlets around the world, production of 65 multimedia contents and inquiring registration of the award winning prize in WIPO were some of the activities of MATF during this time.
It is worth noting that the second round of the Mustafa (PBUH) Prize awarding ceremony will be held on December 3, 2017 in Vahdat Hall, Tehran and the name of the laureates will be formally announced before the ceremony through a especial program.
