US embassy cable - 05AMMAN3971

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 AMMAN 003971 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NP/PTR - Vazquez, Jarvis 
STATE ALSO FOR NP/ECC - Groen, Van Son, Gabryszewski 
STATE PASS USAID 
STATE PASS National Science Foundation 
ENERGY FOR NNSA/Fitzgerald and for Perry 
INTERIOR FOR USGS/International 
COMMERCE FOR NIST 
COMMERCE ALSO FOR D. Creed 
COGUARD FOR USCG Activities/MIO Europe M. BEE 
US CUSTOMS FOR P. Walker, W. Lawrence 
BAGHDAD FOR Smallwood 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID, SENV, TSPL, TBIO, EAGR, XF, JO 
SUBJECT: Iraqi Scientists Work on Grant Proposals at 
DOE/ASTF Workshop 
 
1.  (SBU) Summary: Over thirty Iraqi scientists worked with 
international collaborators on developing scientific and 
business-related grant proposals during a May 16-18 proposal- 
writing workshop in Amman.  The workshop was sponsored by 
the Department of Energy (DOE) in cooperation with the UAE- 
based NGO the Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF), 
and drew on the resources of DOE's Sandia National 
Laboratory.  Incorporating Iraq's Weapons of Mass 
Destruction (WMD) community into this project was discussed 
on the margins.  End summary. 
 
DOE and Sandia Lab Work with Regional NGO and UNESCO 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
2.  (U) The Department of Energy's delegation to the Amman 
workshop was led by Monte Mallin, Director of the Office of 
Global Security Engagement and Cooperation in DOE's National 
Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA).  The genesis of the 
program started with DOE's Cooperative Monitoring Center 
operated by Sandia National Laboratory and funded by NNSA. 
Sandia works with the Sharjah, United Arab Emirates-based 
NGO the Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF) as a 
regional partner.  UNESCO collaborates as well with DOE and 
ASTF in organizing this engagement program for Iraqi 
scientists. 
 
Focus on Health, Environment, Ag, Water, Materials 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
3.  (U) The purpose of the workshop was three-fold: 1) join 
Iraqi scientists with international collaborators to develop 
joint research proposals, 2) train trainers who will travel 
in Iraq to educate the academic and research communities on 
how to write grant proposals, and 3) assist Iraqi scientists 
who have a business-related idea to develop a business plan 
and find potential investors.  Proposals focus on five 
areas: health, environment, water, agriculture and advanced 
materials.  For further information, please refer to ASTF's 
website at 
http://www.astf.net/site/zone/zone.asp?ogzid= 10000. 
 
State's Virtual Science Library Makes Journals Available 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
4.  (U) Dr. Alex Dehgan from NEA's Regional Affairs Office 
spoke to the participants about State's Iraqi Virtual 
Science Library, a project to make scientific journals 
available on-line to Iraqi scientists.  The Virtual Science 
Library will become available soon, said Dehgan.  This 
announcement was received warmly by the Iraqi participants. 
For them, these journals represent welcome and otherwise 
difficult-to-obtain sources of information on current 
science and research. 
 
Excellent Iraqi, Jordanian and International Participation 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
5.  (U) ASTF's Baghdad office played a key role in 
successfully publicizing this workshop to the Iraqi S&T 
community.  ASTF attracted participants from the University 
of Baghdad, Al-Nahrain University, the University of Mosul, 
Basrah University, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry 
of Agriculture, the Ministry of Water Resources, and the 
Ministry of Science and Technology. 
 
6.  (U) Jordan's Higher Council for Science and Technology, 
which combines functions of the U.S. National Science 
Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and 
Technology (NIST), co-sponsored the workshop.  They "took 
out their checkbook," according to one DOE organizer, to pay 
for local expenses, and they arranged for Princess Summaya, 
a member of the royal family, to speak at the opening 
session.  These were significant commitments since, 
according to DOE participants, this is the first time that 
an Arab government has directly and publicly supported S&T 
engagement activities with Iraq. 
 
7. (U) Both Sandia and ASTF did outreach to find 
international collaborators who could work with the Iraqi 
participants to develop specific research proposals.  DOE 
was very pleased with the high quality of the international 
participants, mostly academics and researchers, who came 
from Jordan, Egypt, UK, Kuwait, Sweden, the USA, Lebanon, 
Australia, Ireland, Germany and Sudan. 
 
A Few Bumps in the Road from Iraq, Literally 
-------------------------------------------- 
8.  (U) The workshop successfully created international 
partnerships that will bring Iraqi scientists back into the 
international community and help to rebuild Iraqi's 
scientific infrastructure.  There were a few minor problems: 
long car rides from Iraq, problems at the border with 
Jordan, and an understandably slow start as participants 
took time to get to know each other and to focus on specific 
research topics.  ASTF agreed with the USG assessment that 
these serve as valuable "lessons learned," particularly as 
planning gets underway for a follow-on conference in 
September, tentatively scheduled to be held in the UAE. 
 
Next Steps: Review Proposals, Funding in September in UAE 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
9.  (U) Next steps are for the collaborative teams to 
further refine their proposals and begin to seek out sources 
of funding so that scientists can start working immediately 
on projects found to be scientifically viable and which 
contribute to Iraqi scientific reconstruction.  A potential 
problem is that many international grant cycles are a year 
or longer, creating a short-term funding gap.  The follow-up 
conference in September will seek to identify sources of 
funding.  Final versions of the proposals started these last 
few days in Amman will also be presented at this conference. 
 
Generation Gap in Scientists Will Take Decade to Fill 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
10.  (U) There is another structural issue in the Iraqi 
science community that will take years to address: the 
generation gap.  The dark years under Saddam deprived a 
generation of Iraqis of international S&T experience.  As a 
result, there is an older generation of well-trained Iraqi 
scientists, but a significant gap behind them.  It will take 
a decade or more to fill that gap, since young scientists 
need that long to get the necessary training and experience 
to engage with the colleagues around the world.  It is clear 
that the Iraqi scientists wish to reestablish their contact 
with the international scientific community after years of 
isolation under Saddam.  This thought was expressed 
repeatedly by a large number of Iraqi participants. 
 
Discussions on WMD Scientists 
----------------------------- 
11.  (SBU) Informal, positive discussions were held on the 
margins between DOE delegation head Mallin and ASTF 
leadership about incorporating Iraq's former WMD scientific 
community into existing and future project proposals.  These 
discussions identified possible options, consistent with 
State/DOE discussions prior to the conference.  Mallin will 
bring these ideas back to Washington and will meet with 
DOE's NA-24 leadership and DOS/NP/PTR to debrief.  (Note: 
Three scientists associated with Iraq's WMD program are 
already involved in the ASTF project, with opportunities to 
expand such participation.  End note.) 
 
12.  (U) Comment: This is a practical, results-oriented 
project with modest funding that will work to get the Iraqi 
science community back on its feet and focused on 
sustainable funding.  It will make a contribution to the 
rebuilding of Iraqi's scientific infrastructure and will 
provide a valuable means to promote international 
transparency and cooperation with Iraq's scientific cadre. 
 
13.  (U) This cable was cleared by Mr. Mallin. 
 
HALE