AMMAN - Jordan's Prince El Hassan bin Talal, Chairman of the Higher Council for Science and Technology, said yesterday that securing future generations requires the use of 'best practice' to serve the public interest and the maintenance of analytical methods to access creativity in fields of science and research.
Addressing more than 200 scientists and researchers at the launch of the HCST project, “Setting Research Priorities in Jordan for the Coming 10 Years” at the Princess Sumaya University for Technology, he said that: “there is no magical wand to show us the future, so there is an urgent need to establish a third sphere to address each other as pure citizens within the framework of government, private sector and civil society interaction. This will make it easier to talk about public issues away from the 'fear' of institutionalised fora.”
The "Research Priorities" project is financed by the Scientific Research Fund (via the Ministry of Higher Education), and as pointed out by El Hassan, is a national project which aims at scrutinizing specialized national opinions in order to create a suitable climate for enhancing scientific capacities and projects.
"We are looking forward to the day in which we witness networking between Jordan universities and all universities within the parameters of sound dialogue and proper appreciation of results," El Hassan said.
"The method of dealing with thought and opinion should be developed through a regulatory future outlook that takes into account establishing analytical centers to support decision-makers,” El Hassan added
El Hassan also outlined the Delphi method, which is used in this project. The method uses anonymous responses to questionnaires from a group of experts or scholars in order to reduce the responses down to one "correct" opinion, which then becomes the solution to the scientific problem.
Secretary-General of the HCST, Dr. Adel Tweissi, also spoke about the importance of this project in laying the foundations for right and effective planning of scientific research in Jordan for the next 10 years. The outcome will identify the areas of research which will eventually meet the needs of various technology and development sectors.
Secretary General of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Dr. Turki Obeidat, reiterated the importance of this project by stating "it will organize the process of networking between the Scientific Research Fund and the HCST".
The launch was also attended by Princess Sumaya bint El-Hassan and Jordan’s Minister of Agriculture.
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