Qatar and Italy have always shared strong friendly relations that have been cemented through strategic cooperation across various fields including economy, politics, defense, investment, and education, among others.

Recently, the Italian embassy in Doha and Qatar Foundation (QF) launched a joint social media campaign aimed at further strengthening the bilateral co-operation in the field of research and science diplomacy between the two countries.

The embassy highlighted QF’s vital role in establishing and improving connections with leading Italian research institutes and universities and engaging them in Qatari research, development, and innovation projects.

 Italian ambassador Alessandro Prunus said, “When I took office a few months ago I had the chance to meet many Italian researchers working at QF institutes, and I realized that there was a growing number of local projects involving top Italian research centers”

“When I discussed with QF the ways to enhance bilateral co-operation, we felt it would be essential to disseminate information about existing QF programs to generate greater awareness among the Italian scientific research community, as well as highlight the contribution of Doha-based Italian scientists and experts as a means to encourage new research, development and innovation partnerships between our countries”, he pointed out, adding that this shared view led to a social media campaign produced by the embassy, in collaboration with QF.

“Collaboration is a crucial factor for highly effective research. It contributes to both accelerating scientific progress and it enhances the quality of the work. Our partnership with Italian research centers and scientific experts is part of QF RDI's effort in placing Qatar at the forefront of scientific research and technological advancement and providing solutions to national and global needs”, Dr. Richard O'Kennedy, vice president for Research, Development, and Innovation at QF and vice president for Research at HBKU, said.

Since the state visit of Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella to Qatar in January this year has provided a fresh impetus to the bilateral ties between the two nations.

The embassy said this campaign is based on a series of video-clips by Italian and local QF researchers who highlight their ongoing research projects and share their experiences of being part of Qatar’s and QF’s RDI ecosystem.

#ScienceDiplomacy ? | Amb. @APrunas kicks off a new social campaign to explore @QF research projects which have a deep connection with #Italy and ?? researchers ?‍? in #Qatar. #Research has great potential to progress cooperation between our countries ????? and benefit the ? pic.twitter.com/iY7vFeES9B

— Italy in Qatar (@ItalyinQatar) August 12, 2020

Prunas noted that the campaign also underlines the personal commitment of scientists and experts, who are devoted to their academic and professional careers in areas that are key to the future of the next generations such as environmental policies and sustainability, artificial intelligence, precision medicine and recently, the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

“These are just a few examples of areas of joint interest which are also top national priorities in Italy and Qatar. ‘Science diplomacy’ or as I like to call it, ‘diplomacy for science and research’ can be instrumental in building bridges between the scientific communities of our countries and bring about closer interaction for the benefit of people beyond borders,” the envoy said.

“The COVID-19 global emergency has made us realize that we need to improve common tools to respond to health crises and this can be achieved by reinforcing the network of relations that are already in place between our countries. Italy is eager to further increase diplomatic efforts to encourage research and scientific cooperation with Qatar,” he stressed.

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Source: Gulf Times

Cover Image Credit: The Peninsula