In October this year, the board of trustees of the ECO Science Foundation (ECOSF) passed a proposal that admitted it to the honorary membership as a benefactor of the Mustafa Prize.
ECOSF is an intergovernmental organization comprising ten Islamic countries whose main objective is to accelerate economic development of the member states by supporting science, technology and innovation. The Economic Cooperation Organization which covers a population of 360 million, accounting for a quarter of the world’s Muslim population, is the largest economic organization in the Muslim world.
The honorary membership of the ECOSF came in a statement; “the Board discussed the membership proposal and appreciated the initiative of the Mustafa Prize Secretariat for acknowledging the work of OIC Scientists and Researchers through the Prize and approved that ECOSF may provide technical and in-kind support to the Mustafa Prize for publicity and circulation among the scientific community of ECO region."
The Mustafa (as) Prize was launched in 2012; it aims to introduce to the wider Muslim world cutting-edge works by Muslim scientists. The Secretariat also supports scientific development and commercialization of technology in the fields pertinent to the Mustafa Prize defined categories, in the form of research grants and financial assistance. The first Mustafa Prize Awards Ceremony was held in 2015, where Omar Yaghi from Jordan and Jackie Ying from Singapore shared the prestigious award.