Video-conference of ISC and RICeST with Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University
Islamic Science Citation Center (ISC), Regional Information Center for Science and Technology (RICeST) and Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University- a public university affiliated to the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Iraq, located in Al-Najaf City/Kufa- jointly organized virtual roundtable of their board of directors on 5 May 2020 in order to discuss the potential fields of cooperation in scientific issues.
One of the implements ISC and RICeST take for possible cooperation and collaboration is video conference meetings. These meetings take about 2 hours during which services and potential areas of cooperation are discussed. These video conference sessions often end in MoUs and can play a contributing role in assisting OIC universities to enhance their research and education quality.
The prime objective of the virtual roundtable is to come up with a mechanism for cooperation in order to lessen the hardship caused by the pandemic through mutual understanding of the two parties to the benefit of both, contributing to research, educational, technological and innovative enhancement of the OIC region universities’ status within the global community.
This two-hours meeting was attended by Dr. Mohammad-Javad Dehghani, Dean of ISC and RICeST, Dr. Mohammad Reza Salehi, RICeST and ISC Vice-President of Financial Affairs, Dr. Hajar Safahieh, RICeST Vice-President in Research Affairs, Dr. Mansour Haghighat, ISC Vice-President in Research Affairs, and Dr. Mohammed Reza Falahati Qadimi Fumani, ISC and RICeST Director of Public Relations and International Affairs, hosting Dr. Al-Zahiri, Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University President, Dr. Ahmad Qanim, Vice-President in Research Affairs, Dr. Mohammad Almaktoomi, Vice-President in Administrative Affairs, Dr. Heidar Al-Batat, Director of Cultural Relations and Higher Education Fund, Dr. Ali Najah Al-Shamani, Director of Quality Assurance of University, Dr. Al-Mustafa Al-Yusof, Director of Computer and Information Department, and Mr. Mustafa Feisal, Cultural Relations Expert.
In the beginning, Dr. Dehghani presented the history of ISC and RICeST in brief and gave an introduction of RICeST databases and ISC services and indices such as OIC Science Performance Observatory, English Journal Citation Reports (EJCR), ISC World University Ranking and ISC COVID-19 Visualiser (https://maps.isc.gov.ir/covid19/#/world).
ISC COVID-19 Visualiser
In the following, Dr. Al-Zahiri, President of Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University, had a brief introduction of the university: “Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University is one of the major technical universities in Iraq, located in Najaf Province. It has more than 22000 students of different grades of education and around 1000 faculty members. The university covers 84 subject areas. This university includes 12 faculties and has active branches in 5 cities of Iraq.”
Other topics raised in the meeting were establishing a branch of RICeST in Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University, activating the current Letter of Intent (LoI) between the two parties, availing the Iraqi party to get promoted in international rankings and improve the ranking of scientific journals of Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University, and having Higher Education and Scientific Research Ministry of Iraq.
ISC and RICeST have already had two LoIs concerning scientific issues and a memorandum of understanding for branch establishment in Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University signed on 31 August 2019.
The outcomes of this session are as follows:
It was decided to take immediate action to establish the branch of RICeST at Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University. To attain this goal, Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University will introduce three people to be trained for optimum use of full-text scientific references. Online free three-year access to full-text scientific references will be available for faculty members, researchers, and students of this university through RICeST branch in the university.
It was determined to appoint a contact person from the university for activation of the LoIs.
It was demanded that ISC assist the university by holding workshops for how to get promoted in international ranking systems as one of its priorities.
It was inquired that the ranking of scientific journals of the university be upgraded. To obtain this goal, the related workshops will be held for the editors-in-chief. The university was also required to send its credible journals to ISC to be indexed in case they meet the needed requirements.
It was agreed that the university have the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Iraq and other Iraqi universities informed of ISC COVID-19 Visualiser and introduce the interested universities to ISC in order to provide them of the ability to upload the link of this visualiser (https://maps.isc.gov.ir/covid19/#/world) to their websites.
Video-conference of ISC and RICeST with Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University
Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University Board of Directors