International Scientific Data
Sharing: Benefits and
Opportunities
Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, FRS
UNESCO Science Laureate
A Connected World !
The Digital Age --- digital divides!
 An Age where Truth is Often Stranger than
Fiction!
 The Knowledge Explosion
 New Challenges and Opportunities
 Transitioning to a Knowledge Economy
 A Key Factor: Networking and Data Sharing
 Pakistan: A Case Study

The Digital Age
Death of Distance
 Networking Presents New Opportunities
 ICT Driving Growth
Commerce
Telemedicine
E Governance
GIS
Remote Controlled Instrumentation
Truth Stranger than Fiction !
 Blind
seeing with the Tongue
 Paralysed moving wheel chairs--- with
thought control
 Luminescent Orchids
 Metamaterials – making invisible
 Stem cells
Requirements for Rapid Progress
 Human capital with knowledge
and skills
 Technology
 Innovation/Entrepreneurship Infrastructure
and incentives to innovate
Mechanisms: Networking, Data Sharing,
Knowledge generation and application
5
The Knowledge Explosion

ICT serving to level out the playing field

Share of developing countries as % of
world research publications increased
from 20.9% to 32%

Share of developed countries declined
from 84.3% to 75.3% in same period
UNESCO SCIENCE REPORT 2010
New Challenges and
Opportunities!
Challenges: Diminishing young
populations in many countries opting for
research
 Lack of vision in leaderships of many
developing countries
 Opportunities: The advent of a knowledge
age
 Easier to Catch up---given the political will
eg. China, Korea etc.

Impact of just one institution---MIT

MIT graduates and faculty have founded
4000 companies

Employ: 1.1 million people

Annual Sales: $ 240 billion

Collectively these companies are the 18th
largest economy in the World!
Constraints of a Developing
Country
Lack of a vision, strategy, action plan to
transition to Knowledge Economies
 Inability to Use Data due to:
1) Lack of critical mass of Quality
Researchers
2) Lack of ICT Infra-structure
3) Lack of Funds for Research/Libraries
4) Lack of Incentives for Academics to
publish (universities are actually
community colleges)
Open Access --- the New
Wave!

Open Access Journals

Open Access Journal Articles

Open Access Books

Open Access Book Chapters

Open Access Lectures
Open Source

MIT Open Source Materials --- A
Wonderful Initiative

Apple iTunes U : Another great source of
data

Host of Other Materials Freely Available
on Internet
Data Sharing

Telemedicine

Sharing GIS Data --- Web based GIS for
sharing geographical data, E governance

International Grid: CERN calculations --across the world!

Remote Control of Science Experiments:
NMR
An
Example from a
Developing Country:
Pakistan
Pakistan---An Exciting
Beginning !!

My appointment as Federal Minister of
Science & Technology and Federal
Minister-Chairman Higher Education
Commission (2000-2008)
6000% increase in budget of
Science & Technology
2400% increase in budget of
higher education
Systematically Addressing
the Constraints in Data
Sharing
 CONSTRAINT
ONE ---National Vision, Strategy and
Action Plan
Cabinet
(on 19 November 2003)
Entrusted Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman to
Prepare a comprehensive National
Development Plan – Transitioning to a
Knowledge Economy
16
Areas
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Agriculture
Textiles
Leather
Materials
Chemicals &
Pharmaceuticals
Engineering Goods
Electronics
•
•
•
•
•
•
Energy / Power
Telecommunications
Information Technology
Construction & Housing
Transportation
Strategic Industries /
Technologies
17
Methodology
 Study undertaken: PCST + PIDE
 12 Committees ( several hundred eminent scientists,
engineers, planners, economists and private sector
representatives)
 Consultation with Federal / Provincial Ministries
 Consultation with PAEC, KRL, NESCOM, SPD etc.
 Intensive Brainstorming Sessions:

SWOT Analysis
Strategies Identified

Action Plan prepared in each field


Important projects for implementing the Action Plan Identified

Will need to reviewed and revised constantly
18
Gaps
 Technology gap
Example:
 Fan Industry: Korea sells 10 times more fans (with
noise reduction technology) than Pakistan
Policy gap
We have ignored the paradigm shift in world trade
which is towards high tech products
Innovation gap
Lack of organized effort to promote innovation/
entrepreneurship
19
Approach
Focus, Focus, Focus!
 Prepare prioritized list of “Doable” projects
in each sector
 Clearly identify

What is to be done ?

Who will do it ?

Implementation timeframe ?

Human resource requirements ?

Cost of project ?

Impact on national economy ?
20
Cabinet Decision
Foresight Document (270
pages) Approved
National Implementation Committee
constituted under Prime Minister
comprising relevant Ministries,
eminent scientists, engineers,
Secretaries and Private Sector
representatives
21
Systematically Addressing
the Constraints in Data
Sharing
 CONSTRAINT
Two ---Developing Critical Mass of
High Quality Researchers
(developing national abilities to
generate, share and utilize data)
Challenge: How do we attract our
brightest to Education/Research
?

Pakistan has 85 million below age 19
(54% of population) !

Both a Challenge and an Opportunity
It is the brightest among them who must
provide the leadership in all fields--education, S&T, Government

HOW ??

1) Excite young minds about the wonders
of science !
 2) Select and train the Brightest in top
universities abroad
 3) Attract them back--- by creating an
enabling environment :

Salaries

Research Funding

Access to Literature/ Instrumentation

Critical Mass—create clusters !

Attracting the Brightest !
 Dramatic
Change in Salary
Structures/Benefits
Under new “Tenure Track” system salaries
of Professors raised to over US $ 5,000 per
month (equal to US$ 7,000 per month after
tax concessions)---five times more than
Federal Ministers in Government !
Performance based system
75% Tax waiver for University Teachers
(maximum 5%)

Massive Foreign scholarship programs
 Nearly 11,000 awarded (mostly for
Europe)
 World’s largest Fulbright Scholarship
program for the US
 Each returning scholar given access
to $ 100,000 research fund with
guaranteed jobs at excellent salaries
on tenure track system
 About US$ 1 Billion being spent on
Foreign Scholarships (1500 in IT)

Indigenous PhD programs promoted
Distribution of Approved Project Cost
27
Systematically Addressing
the Constraints in Data
Sharing
 CONSTRAINT
THREE ---Developing world class infrastructure --- the knowledge
highways!
Paksat 1
Ku Band
C-Band
Virtual University
4 Digital Satellite (PAKSAT-1) TV
Channels for content delivery (License
for 2 granted)
 Satellite Earth Station
 2 Recording Studios
 Potential for providing high quality
training in remote areas of Pakistan

August 14, 2000
29 Cities
31
Information Technology
Spread of Internet Services in Cities &
Towns of Pakistan
2500
2000
2000
1500
1050
1000
580
500
29
0
Year
From 40 to 1,000
Cities on Optical
Fibre (2000-2005)
2002
China
Afghanistan
SDH/PDH
(525/622 Mb/s)
backbone being
upgraded to
DWDM
Iran
India
10 Gb/s
822 cities on the Internet
Internet user growth
June 2000: 130,000
Oct 2006: >12 million
Internet users
1,000,000
800,000
600,000
400,000
200,000
-
Actual users
more than 20
Million!
Dial up
Internet users
Start point
Ja
n
-9
Ja 5
n9
Ja 6
n9
Ja 7
n9
Ja 8
n9
Ja 9
n0
Ja 0
n01
Ja
n02
Today
Plummeting costs….
June 2000: US$ 87,000/E1
August 2001: US$ 6,000
October 2004 : US$ 3,800
Now US$ 950 per month/2 Mb/s !
Cost /E1
Start point
100,000
Today
60,000
Cost /E1
40,000
20,000
1
-0
M
ay
1
-0
M
ar
1
-0
Ja
n
0
-0
No
v
0
-0
Se
p
0
Ju
l-0
0
-0
M
ay
-0
0
M
ar
US $
80,000
Communications Network---the
Effect of one Good Decision!
1992-2000, little Growth(300,000 phones)
 2001, CPP regime brought in


Network expansion of 3 million phonelines ordered in 2002 ! Mobilink, U-fone

Explosive growth continues till today (over
100 million phones today—hottest sector
of the economy)
Pakistan Education & Research
Network
PERN – I Status (2003 – 08)
Universities/ Institutes
80
Core Bandwidth
155 Mbps
Last Mile Bandwidth
4-24
Mbps
International Leased
Circuit
155 Mbps
PERN – II Plans (2009 - 2013)
Universities/ Institutes/R&E
Org.
250+
Core Bandwidth
10 Gbps
Last Mile Bandwidth
1 Gbps
International Leased Circuit
1.3 Gbps
Systematically Addressing
the Constraints in Data
Sharing
 CONSTRAINT
FOUR ---The Contents ---- Access to
Information!
Digital Library
 E-Journals:
25,000 full text
journals

E-Books: access to over 45,000
text books and monographs -220 international publishers
 MIT
Mirror Web site
E-Resources
 Ever since its inception, Digital Library is striving hard to provide our
institutions with superior quality peer-reviewed, full-text, academic
and research material in the shape of e-journals as well as e-books.
There are more than 75 Thousand e contents available to researchers
..
Springer Link
Cambridge Uni. Press
Wiley Interscience
JSTOR
McGraw-Hill Professional
Science Direct
Project MUSE
Science Online
IEEE
Ebrary
ISI – Web of Science
Emerald
 For a complete list of e-resources please visit www.digitallibrary.edu.pk
National Digital Library Program
40
Usage Stats – An Insight
 Downloads - Overall Usage
Nos. in Millions
5
4
3
2
1
0
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Articles Dow nloaded
National Digital Library Program
41
International Video-lecturing
Program / Distance Learning

High quality video-conferencing
equipment installed

Series of international lectures (nationwide) by top professors from leading world
universities

Complete Courses Now Being Delivered:
Sri Lanka, Thailand, Pakistan etc benefiting
URL: http:\\111.68.111.200/moodle
Video Conferencing Facility
Launched
in Dec
2006
2006
2007
2008
2009
Total
Universities
Equipped
4
14
16
36
70
Events
organized
14
532
490
894
1921
Technic
Lectures /
Conferen
al
Meeting Intervie
Events Presentati
ces
Discussi
s
ws
ons
on
Total
Events
2006
3
3
8
-
-
14
2007
154
10
276
63
20
523
2008
63
7
316
82
22
490
2009
63
10
630
167
24
894
Total
283
30
1230
312
66
1921
43
Telemedicine

Pakistan’s Telemedicine Program Initiated
in 2001

Selected Doctors Trained in USA

Proved invaluable when earthquake
devastated northern areas

Over 4000 tele-consultations provided
Systematically Addressing
the Constraints in Data
Sharing
 CONSTRAINT
FIVE ---Controlling Improper Use of
Available Data --- Plagiarism!
National Plagiarism Policy
National Plagiarism Policy prepared and
implemented
 Software (“Authentcate”/”Turnitin”)
provided to all universities/institutions
 Plagiarism “watch dog” set up
 All theses and research papers checked
by universities & centrally monitored
 National Archives created for all National
Publications (M.Phil./Ph.D. Theses, books
etc).

IMPACT
Increasing Access

1947-2003 : 135,000 university students
2009
: 400,000 university students

No. of Public Sector Universities / Degree
Awarding Institutes : Doubled from 59 in
2000 to 127 in 2009

Results
 600%
in ISI abstracted
publications

1000% increase in citations over
last 4 years
 Tripling
of enrolment and doubling
of universities
Year wise Research Output-Pakistan
PhD Output
Discipline
Agriculture & Veterinary Sciences
Biological & Medical Sciences
Engineering & Technology
Business Education
Physical Sciences
Social Sciences
Arts & Humanities
Honorary
Total
1947 - 2002
[55 years]
2003 - 2009
[ 7 Years ]
Number
Number
363
589
14
11
688
899
663
54
3,281
450
601
131
58
677
739
377
4
3,037
World University Rankings

Higher Education Times, UK Rankings,
November 2009:

Several Pakistani universities ranked
among the top 300 universities of the
World :
Karachi University at 223
Natl.science) , NUST at 263, NUST at
281
QAU at 69 in Engineering-related discipline
Glowing International Reviews-World Bank
 USAID
 British Council

“Nature”--27th November 2007---- “The
Paradox of Pakistan”
 “Nature” --28th August 2008--- “After
Musharraf”
 “Nature”--- 3rd September 2009
 “Nature” --- 22nd September 2010

Nature, 22nd September 2010
“Rahman's strong scientific background,
enthusiasm for reform and impressive
ability to secure cash made him a hit at
home and abroad---It really was an anomaly that we had a
person of that stature with that kind of
backing
Atta-ur-Rahman was a force of nature."
54
Highest Civil Award of Austria
International Prize for Pakistan

I was selected for the TWAS (Italy) Prize
for Institution Building

Prize was conferred and Prize Lecture
delivered by me in Durban, South Africa
last month
Royal Society (London)
a survey entitled “A New Golden
Age ?” the Royal Society has come
forward with examples of recent
positive changes in some Islamic
countries and quoted Pakistan as the
best practice model to be followed by
other developing countries
 In
PAKISTAN’s Potential
Winners of International Science Olympiads
A GROUP OF GERMAN STUDENTS
THANK YOU