Himalayan University Consortium Annual Meeting Concluded

The Himalayan University Consortium annual meeting concluded at Lanzhou University on August 24th to 26th. The program was attended by all eighteen member universities working actively in Hindu Kush Himalayan region, associate members from University of Salzburg, Austria, Norwegian University of life Science, Norway, and Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. The observers from USA, China and India were also present during the meeting.

The first half of meeting was mainly concerned with the thematic activity and work experience sharing by ICIMOD to all member universities. The second half was actual annual meeting of HUC, where all member and associate member universities presented their research areas and explained how they could contribute to making the consortium more vibrant and achieve meaningful collaboration for sustainable development of mountains.

During the annual meeting extensive discussion was held on draft charter of the consortium, the charter was approved and decided to be signed by all heads of institutes and VCs of member Universities along with authorized representatives from Associate member institutions in near future at ICIMOD head office in Kathmandu.

A five member interim steering committee was proposed by Director General of ICIMOD Dr. David Molden, which was later approved by all the members. The steering committee consists of Prof. Long Ruijiun from Lanzhou University, Dr. Eklabya Sharma from ICIMOD, Dr. Bahadar Nawab Khattk from COMSATS, Pakistan, Dr. Ashok Gurung from India-China Institute and Prof. Bim Prasad Shrestha from Kathmandu University. The secretariat for this steering committee is to be stationed at ICIMOD HQ, Kathmandu, Nepal.