ICTP in the Middle East

ICTP was represented at two recent, key events in the United Arab Emirates related to the promotion of science.

On 24 February, Director Atish Dabholkar signed an agreement with the University of Sharjah to promote joint research opportunities and academic exchanges. The new agreement extends the scientific cooperation between the two institutes that was formalised in 2018. Dabholkar was accompanied by an ICTP delegation that included Rosario Fazio, head of the Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics (CMSP) section, CMSP senior scientist Sandro Scandolo, and ICTP geophysicist Abdelkrim Aoudia of the Earth System Physics section.

On 25 February, Dabholkar and Fazio were among the speakers in a delegation of scientific leaders from Italy's Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region to present highlights of their respective institutes. The event took place in the Italy pavilion at the World Expo in Dubai. Trieste, the capitol of the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia (FVG) region, is known as Italy's 'City of Science' and harbours the highest concentration of research institutes in the country, including ICTP, SISSA and ICGEB.

"ICTP has been one of the foundational pillars of the Trieste Science System which has given  Trieste the  reputation for  scientific excellence and innovation as  the City of Science, not only within Europe but on a global platform," said Dabholkar in his remarks in Dubai.

"ICTP has had close collaborations with countries and scientific organizations in the Middle East and in North Africa," Dabholkar continued,  "The FVG session at the World Expo in Dubai is an excellent  opportunity for ICTP, along with other research institutes in the Trieste System,  to highlight these achievements and the emerging opportunities, particularly in cutting-edge fields such as quantum technologies. We look forward to strengthening synergies with our regional partners and exploring new cooperation with Middle Eastern science institutes."

Rosario Fazio presented ICTP's numerous collaborations with Trieste System institutes investigating quantum physics. A highlight of those collaborations was the establishment, in 2019, of the Trieste Institute for Theoretical Quantum Technologies(TQT). Founded in 2019 by ICTP, SISSA and the University of Trieste, TQT is an international centre of excellence promoting research in the field of quantum technologies, serving as a catalyst for theoretical activities not only in Italy, but also in neighbouring and developing countries. The institute organises conferences and schools in the field of quantum technologies, with high-level training and expertise. The aim is to promote collaboration between Italian and foreign scholars, both junior and senior, in order to enhance interdisciplinarity and innovation and maximize international impact.

ICTP's presence in the Arab world goes back decades. For example, the Centre funded a seminal conference in Dahad in 1996, uniting Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Morocco and Egypt to agree on funding a synchrotron light source research facility that led to the establishment of SESAME in Jordan. In addition, ICTP has a long-standing partnership with the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences to support science in Kuwait and other Arab countries. Since 1970, ICTP has supported the visits to its campus of more than 10,000 scientists from Arab League member states.