Surrey Alumnus Professor Nitish Chandra Debnath hosts UK Science Park delegates at a planning meeting in Bangladesh
Monday 8 September 2008
With more than 1,000 science and research parks now operating worldwide, the role that science parks play in supporting the formation and growth of technology and other knowledge-based businesses has led to an increased interest in how parks are planned, developed and managed globally.
As such, the British Council in collaboration with Professor Nitish Chandra Debnath, the Vice-Chancellor of the Chittagong School of Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, recently invited a team of specialists from the UK science park movement, including Dr Malcolm Parry OBE, Director of the Surrey Research Park; Professor Quintin McKellar, Principal and Dean of the Royal Veterinary College; and Professor John Allan, the former CEO of Manchester Science Park, to visit the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka to work with senior members of the country's higher education sector and other centres of excellence in science.
The meeting provided the delegates with the opportunity to hear how the UK is successfully using science parks to create new technology-based companies and to commercialise university technology and also to listen to Professor Debnath views on how science parks might be deployed in Bangladesh.
The Surrey Research Park, for example, was one of the founding members of the UK Science Park Association (UKSPA) in 1984, and has remained a leading member since then.
According to Professor Debnath, the science movement in Bangladesh is currently facing many challenges, including a real need to create relevant science and technology-based employment opportunities for graduates that may otherwise be driven to leave the country. Professor Debnath says that one approach to this dilemma could be for science parks and their attendant business incubation skills to establish a new raft of companies that specialise in the technologies and sciences that are most relevant to the economy in Bangladesh.
Professor Debnath is a widely respected figure in Bangladesh's science community, and has a very strong reputation with the Higher Education community in particular. As such, it was especially rewarding for the UK delegates to have the opportunity to speak to Professor Nitish and his colleagues about their ideas and to formulate a workable plan for establishing a number of science parks in Bangladesh.
Dr Malcolm Parry said it was a great pleasure to meet Professor Debnath who has risen to the top of his profession in Bangladesh after studying for and gaining his PhD at the University of Surrey in the early 1980s.
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