Ames, Iowa, - Iowa State University (ISU) President Martin Jischke and UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor signed on May 9 an agreement to extend their cooperation in the International Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics (IITAP) through the year 2002.
Under the agreement, ISU and UNESCO will expand their support for IITAP and seek to strengthen existing partnerships and develop new ones, including with U.S. federal agencies, international organizations, corporations and foundations. IITAP's collaboration with the private sector in 1997 alone yielded more than $400,000 of support for its programs.
ISU will continue providing core support for IITAP, and UNESCO in 1998 will provide $325,000 in programmatic support. Of that support, $175,000 will be for funding research and training activities. The other $150,000 will help fund activities of IITAP's International Women in Science and Engineering Program (IWISE) which seeks to promote women's careers in the scientific and technological fields.
The memorandum portrays the longer range vision of ISU and UNESCO that IITAP will become a major hub of global science networking with additional international projects and programs and an annual operating budget many times its current size.
IITAP's mission is to promote international cooperation in science and the sharing of scientific knowledge by providing scientists from around the world, especially those from developing countries, with opportunities for advanced training and research. The Institute's fields included physics, astronomy, metallurgy, computer sciences, meteorology and climate change, solar and renewable energies, soil and water resources management and sustainable development.
"This very successful initiative has successfully accomplished all the goals and hopes we set for it," remarked President Jischke, adding that the new pact represented "a more ambitious commitment to the future. Our partnership with UNESCO through IITAP is providing a new generation of international scientists the knowledge to produce technology that can change people's lives."
Director-General Mayor said IITAP is helping to "reduce the gap between the haves and the have-nots, including the knowledge gaps and information gaps. What really matters is far-sightedness that can provide decision-makers with a new policy-making process based on scientific rigor."