Scientific research is the key to development

Its principal aim is to promote scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable development in the developing countries.

It was named "Third World Academy of Sciences" until 2004 and "TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world" before September 2012.

Although developing countries account for 80 per cent of the world’s population, only 28 per cent of the world's scientists hail from these countries.

This fact reflects the lack of innovative potential necessary to solve real-life problems affecting poor nations.

A chronic lack of funds for research often forces scientists in developing countries into intellectual isolation, jeopardising their careers, their institutions and, ultimately, their nations.

Scientists in developing countries tend to be poorly paid and gain little respect for their work because the role that scientific research can play in development efforts is underestimated.
Research institutions and universities in the developing countries are under-funded, forcing scientists to work in difficult conditions and often with outdated equipment.

The founding members of TWAS therefore decided to set up an organisation that would help to: Recognise, support and promote excellence in scientific research in the developing countries; provide promising scientists in those countries with research facilities necessary for the advancement of their work;

Since its inception, TWAS's operational expenses have largely been covered by generous contributions of the Italian government; since 1991 UNESCO has been responsible for the administration of TWAS finance and staff on the basis of an agreement signed by the director general of UNESCO and the president of TWAS.

It is on this background that hundreds of the world's best scientific minds are currently meeting in Kigali, Rwanda for the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) general meeting.
The choice of Kigali is not lost to imagination as the country has shifted attention to promoting scientific education as its development driver.

The commitment to science has led to the scientific world taking notice. This year, The Next Einstein Forum will move its base to Kigali. It brings together African thinkers in many areas to work on and seek solutions to a multitude of challenges.

The University of Rwanda is also home to the East African Institute of Fundamental Research. The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) will also have Rwanda as its global headquarters.

The above mentioned and many others are an indication that science in many countries is on the move and the governments are seeing that it stays that way.

During TWAS general meetings, outstanding scientific researchers are recognised and others are inducted into the prestigious select group.

It is quite interesting and telling that of those awarded in the Kigali meeting as well as the 44 new admitted Fellows, more than half were from China and India.

This does not need a nuclear scientist to deduce the reasons behind both countries' advanced scientific achievements and how they have translated into economic growth.

So the TWAS meeting should be an opportunity for researchers from developing countries to sit up and listen. They hold the future in their brains, what is needed is unlocking that potential, and luckily, they might find the key in Kigali.