Dear MERC friends;

   Our steps seem small if  considered from the perspective of the ambitious aspirations of the program but they are large, visible and concrete if regarded from the point of view of the modest resources available to MERC

Achievements this years have ranged between scientific meetings, documentation work, the initiation of « Al Manhal » in addition to plans for publications and the creation of networks and links between MERC alumni here and others there, oversees and in the diaspora.

Titles of this year’s agenda have been as follows 

1.Cairo Roundtable for Prospective Debate
On the initiative of the Middle East Research Competition (MERC) and in collaboration with the Arab League Department of Population Policies and Migration, and with the participation of a number of experts from Qatar, Egypt and Tunisia, a roundtable on the future of prospective debate in the Arab World took place in Cairo.

This meeting falls within the debate traditions which are considered from now on as a permanent component of “Awrak Al -Awssat”; a scientific journal that MERC plans to launch. Social Sciences and future prospects are its main orientations. The aim behind that is to tighten the link between the scientific research concerns on the one hand and the interest in the future of the social developments in the region on the other.

Adding to the program coordinator Dr. Abdelwahab Ben Hafaiedh, Dr.Mahmoud Al Imam (Egypt), Dr. Ibrahim Issawi (editor of Egypt 2020 Report), Mr.Khaled Louhichi (Department of Population Policies and Migration, Arab League) and Dr Abdelkader Latreche (National Institute of Statistics) participated in this roundtable

 
2. « Awraq al Awsat »
This is the name of MERC’s new bi-annual publication in the area of prospective debate which seeks to empower researchers to publish their work and introduce them to the local and international scholarly communities through their research abstracts.

3. « Akhbar Al Awsat »
The third issue is in the pipeline and includes a list of recent grantees in addition to coverage of the training workshops and the seminar on « social sciences and research ethics » which was held in the fall of 2007 with the participation of researchers from Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Egypt and Saudi Arabia in addition to participants from the International committee of Ethics, in Geneva, Switzerland

4. Training on Comparative research
So far, MERC has focused on techniques of quantitative, qualitative and digital treatment of data. In the coming phase, a workshop will take place on comparative research. A training session will be organized in cooperation with the university of Sassary In Italy and will be attended by researchers from the two banks of the Mediterranean.

5. Annual seminar
Following the seminars on the development and ethics of research, MERC has planned to organize its next seminar under the title of « Research Management of Social Welfare ». The meeting will be held in Tunis and is expected to address a number of issues related to research in this area.

6. « Al Manhal »
This is the name of the program’s data base for electronic resources and theses. It includes :

• Electronic journals
• Academic theses
• International reports on the Arab World
• Organizations and associtions in the area of social sciences

7) Network of Arab researchers in the Diaspora
These include MERC alumni with whom the program seeks to develop relations through the « Arab Forum of Social Sciences » the framework that brings together MERC alumni in the diaspora and those residing within Arab countries. The revival of this group aims to maintain relations among researchers who have benefited from the assistance of the program and its current and future activities. However, affiliation to this network is not confined to MERC grantees  nor to researchers in the diaspora.

Given what has been achieved and what inadvertantly has been omitted, we consider that the most important achievement is the capital of  new relations that has been accumulating and intertwining to include promising researchers from Mauritania where social sciences are still finding their way,  to researchers from Syria and the Gulf states where new modes of cooperation is being initiated with the program.

Seven titles, promises to break new grounds and new trajectories for dialogue, writing and meetings which we chart together,

hand in hand… 

Abdelwahab Ben Hafaiedh

MERC Coordinator