According to the Public Relations Department of Mustafa (PBUH) Prize, Mehdi Safarinia, President of Policy Making Council of Mustafa (PBUH) Prize hosted the first press conference of this event and elaborated on aspects of this scientific prize of Muslim world which is organized by Iran for the first time.
At the beginning of the session Safarinia congratulated the start of Rabi al-Awwal month and stated that the Policy Making Council of Mustafa (PBUH) Prize has been working for the last three years to set policies for the first round of Mustafa (PBUH) Prize and said “The main ceremony of the first round of Mustafa (PBUH) Prize takes place 24 December at the birthday of the Great Prophet of Islam at Vahdat Hall, introducing the winners of the award in three categories.
He described the role of the Policy Making Council and said, “Mustafa (PBUH) Prize was designed with reviewing 300 global awards and other international standards. Cooperation of 200 scientific centers as nominating agencies (a center per country average) with Mustafa (PBUH) Prize, notifying and informing 13 thousand audiences and translation of the documents into 5 languages were some of the achievements of the Prize so far.
After that, Safarinia talked about the Prize and the selection method and said, “the jury of Mustafa (PBUH) Prize consists of 7 senior Iranian and foreign scientists and consultants. The work and achievements of selected scientists for this Prize should be innovative and creative and must further develop frontiers of knowledge. It should also have a clear and tangible effect and application in the lives of people. The work must not be precedent while the scientist in question must have a global reputation. For this purpose, 61 jury sessions were held and 13 international consultants and referees attended these sessions along with main referees. Two international scientific centers must have confirmed the comments and decisions of the referees.”
In the following, Mehdi Safarinia described the fund raising methods of Mustafa (PBUH) Prize and said, “by reviewing major awards in the world we tried to utilize public and private methods and finance the Prize with resources of private institutions and endowment funds. Two major projects were defined in this regard: 1. Cooperation with Islamic Development Bank for a construction project which will then donates to the Prize and 2. An endowed land which will be constructed at later stages.”
The President of Policy Making Council of Mustafa (PBUH) Prize described the program of the Prize and said, “the main ceremony takes place on Friday December 24 at Talar Vahdat from 18:00 to 20:00 with the introduction of the winners in three categories. 60 guests from more than 28 countries will be present. Saturday will be the busiest day with more than six meetings. In the morning, the 6th meeting of the Policy Making Council will take place followed by a meeting in Peace Building of IRCS with winners and respected guests from other countries. The winners will introduce their work. Several other meetings will also take place during Saturday. Guests pay a visit to cultural places of Tehran on Sunday.”
Mehdi Safarinia emphasized on the importance of financial independence of Mustafa (PBUH) Prize and said, "Investment and endowment Fund of Mustafa (PBUH) Prize was approved by Tehran Stock Exchange and started its fundraising. More than 235 individuals and organizations have cooperated and invested and more than 9 Billion Rials have been raised so far.”
At the end, Mehdi Safarinia explained the importance of “Light of Ibn al-Haytham Film Contest” and said, “2015 has been named “the year of Light” by UNESCO and Ibn al-Haytham has contributed a lot to the light physic principles. More than 9000 students registered for this contest and more than 1000 videos have been submitted so far. The winners will be introduced in a ceremony and an exhibition taking place April 22nd 2016.”
After the first part of the press conference, Safarinia answered questions in a Q&A session.
The first round of Mustafa (PBUH) Prize takes place 24-29 Dec 2015 in Tehran, Iran.
HRGH/PR