The S&T Diaspora networks in the recent past all across the developing world indicate a new trend in socio-economic development and countries are making efforts to utilize expertise of their expatriate scientists and engineers for development at home. The success stories of China, Korea and India are an example for all. In view of the increased recognition of the potential development impact of diasporas, it is the need of time for us to make focused efforts to develop network of Diaspora Scientists to harvest the benefits that flow back from scientists back to homelands and enhance cooperation in both directions.

Pakistan has also started realizing the importance of Diaspora, particularly Science Diaspora for national, development and for scientific and technological advancement. It is an established fact that Pakistanis living abroad have deep rooted bond and love for their country, as we can witness from their emotions when cheering on their national team in a cricket or hockey match, a long way from their homeland. They keep on contributing to Pakistan in individual capacity and try to develop collaborations with scientists back home. But there is a dire need to facilitate this process in an organized way putting their efforts on record as well as to recognize their contributions.

Realizing the importance of this vastly untapped resource Pakistan Council for Science and Technology (PCST) jointly with Pakistan Academy of Sciences (PAS) has taken this imperative initiative of preparing the Directory of Pakistani Science Diaspora. Now it is well known fact, that PCST is the only organization in Pakistan which has established a unique platform that maintains a national database of productive scientists of Pakistan. From this comprehensive data, in the course of last two decades, PCST has published eight (08) directories on the subject of scientific research evaluation. The 8th study (PSP – 2016) has been completed recently, which includes the life-time research profile of 3268 scientists, including papers published in ISI-indexed journals, cumulative impact factor, citations index (total citations and h-index), competitive research grants won, number of PhD supervised, patents granted along with innovation/applied research of scientists, engineers and health professionals employed in public / private sector universities, colleges and R&D organizations categorized in different subjects. The updated version of PSP-2017 is at the advanced stage. This credible document holds a wide level of ownership both in the scientific community and the Government, and the data is available on PCST website http://www.pcst.org.pk, with open access to public.

The Directory of Pakistani Science Diaspora will prove to be a strong potential resource for effective collaboration between scientists of our country and Diaspora living in industrialized countries and this platform would hopefully play a vital role in driving innovation and economic growth by transfer of skills and knowledge through Diaspora network.

Please click on the link below to fill data form.

https://goo.gl/forms/PO4m9xxY8lVi94r43

Any enquiry in this regard can be addressed to :

By Telephone: (Dr.Saima Nasir): +92 334 5333 414

By Email: pcst.diaspora@gmail.com

Please feel free to spread the message among scientific community and make a contribution in this very important national initiative.