Atlas of the Islamic World: Final report

This is the final report of the Atlas of Islamic World Science and Innovation project, which has brought together diverse partners from Europe, North America and the Islamic world to explore the changing dynamics of science and innovation in a wide range of countries with large Muslim populations in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. It has done so at a time of momentous political change, the implications of which for science and technology are far from certain. The report takes the form of a statistics-based analysis of science, technology and innovation indicators across the 57 member countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which are used in this report as a proxy for the Islamic world.

Conclusions and recommendations

• More OIC countries need to draw up science and technology policies to address national and international challenges and contribute to national socioeconomic development.
• International scientific collaboration needs to be strengthened and promoted.
• More investment in R&D is needed.
• More private sector investment in R&D is required.
• More investment in human capital is needed.
• More OIC countries need to measure science, technology and innovation indicators.
• Robust intellectual property (IP) regimes should be introduced and/or strengthened.
• OIC member countries should focus on fostering scientific excellence and high quality research.
• OIC countries rich in natural resources should set up dedicated endowment funds for science and technology.
• Collaboration should be encouraged between resource-rich but underpopulated OIC countries and those countries where the reverse applies.
• The OIC’s more established scientific nations should offer their expertise, guidance and insights to less-well developed OIC countries.

Four other country case studies and a position paper were published as part of the Atlas project, and are available to download.

Project partners

• The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
• Nature
• The Statistical, Economic and Social Research & Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC)
• The British Council
• The International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
• The Qatar Foundation
• The Islamic Development Bank
• COMSTECH
• The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO)

We also work with national research partners on the production of each case study.