IYCr2014 South Asia Summit Meeting on Vistas in structural chemistry

International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), Karachi, Pakistan

28 - 30 April 2014

The IUCr-UNESCO summit meetings bring together scientists from countries in widely separated parts of the world, using a common crystallographic theme. There is a real necessity for scientists to think beyond political borders and other distinctions. Therefore the summit meetings, attended by scientists in academia and industry, and by science administrators, were planned between countries which have hitherto been divided on the basis of geography, ethnicity, religion and politics. These meetings will focus on high level science, also highlighting the difficulties and problems of conducting competitive scientific research in different parts of the developing world.

The first of three summit meetings was held in Karachi (Pakistan), bringing together scientists, policy makers, administrators from India, China and Pakistan under the umbrella of chemical crystallography and pharmaceutical sciences. The Summit Declaration was an Appeal to the IUCr to intiate actions to promote regional scientific collaboration, and was signed by over 50 of the participants.