An important step has been taken for scientific research at Libyan universities, the core aim of the IBTIKAR project.
After a long cycle of both in-presence and online trainings, to follow-up the high-level objectives set by the projects, the 11 universities partner of the IBTIKAR project have carried out their local training workshops, between the end of December 2023 and mid January 2024. These trainings, based on a cascade training approach, have reached around 270 people and have seen the participation of 60 trainers. These workshops were an opportunity for the partners to present their institutional Research Agenda and research priorities, to discuss the evolution of the national legislative framework, to present funding programs, and to reflect on the challenges currently facing research and consultation centers.
Following these trainings, a harmonization meeting has been held at Misurata University premises on February 18th, 2024, to gather feedback and recommendations. Among the main concerns emerged during these training, there was clearly: the need for an improved coordination between the Research and Consultation Centers of the Libyan HEI, and the establishment of a national network for collaborative research initiatives; the relevance to give to the communication of the scientific research done by the universities at national and international levels; the needs for specific fundings allocated to scientific research; and the modernization of curricula, including a focus on postgraduate studies.
A public event has been organized on February 19th to present the outcomes of IBTIKAR to a larger audience. More than 100 people attended the first in presence event in Libya of the IBTIKAR project. Among the participants, very valuable was also the presence of students of Misurata University: testified by the relevance of their questions and inputs, we directly experienced that the future of Libyan universities is in good hands!
IBTIKAR has now entered into its last phase, namely the piloting of research activities. An implementation roadmap will soon be discussed among partners and will guide us, step by step, to our final conference in Tripoli in October 2024.
