Pr. Mostapha Bousmina elected to the position of President of the African Council for Science, Research and Innovation - ASRIC - under the African Union (AU)
Pr. Mostapha Bousmina elected to the position of President of the African Council for Science, Research and Innovation - ASRIC - under the African Union (AU)
Pr. Mostapha Bousmina, Chancellor of the Hassan II Academy of Science and Technology and President of Euromed University of Fes, was elected on 24 November 2021 in Nairobi, Kenya, by an overwhelming majority as President of the African Council for Science, Research and Innovation (ASRIC), which falls under the African Union (AU).
This is a high-level position within the AU's scientific bodies that requires high-level skills such as those possessed by Professor Bousmina, a connoisseur of higher education, scientific research and innovation. He has, in fact, a long academic experience both in Canada, where he held a senior research chair in nanotechnology, and in Morocco.
He was president, for two terms, of NASAC - the Network of African Science Academies - which brings together academies from about thirty African countries; a member of the executive board of the IAP (InterAcademy Partnership), an international organization bringing together more than 140 science academies from the five continents; a member of the World Academy of Sciences and Arts; a member of the African Academy of Sciences; co-founder and first Director General of MAScIR; editor-in-chief and co-editor of three international scientific journals, in addition to other international distinctions.
In 2020, he was ranked by Stanford University among the top 2% of scientists in the world and as the most impactful Moroccan in terms of scientific research at the global level.
It remains to be seen whether the AU will provide him with adequate budgets to successfully carry out his mission and to establish partnerships with other similar institutions worldwide such as the NSF (National Science Foundation) of the United States or the European Research Council which has just launched the Horizon Europe program endowed with a colossal budget of EUR 95.5 billion for the period 2021-2027.
The appointment of Professor Bousmina to the head of ASRIC is recognition of the important role played by the Hassan II Academy of Science and Technology and of Morocco’s leadership role on the African level under the enlightened guidance of His Majesty King Mohammed VI.
ASRIC is a body whose mission is to assist the Commissioner in charge of Human Resources, Science and Technology in developing AU policy on education, research and innovation and to promote scientific research and innovation in Africa by funding research, innovation and mobility programs for researchers and students across the continent.
