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Topics in Detail
The community is currently engaging and collaborating on the following thematic tracks:
 Capacity building in universities in developing countries
Environmental Sustainability
Digital Dissemination of University Content
Middle East: Partnership and Challenges
Faith and Globalization
In each theme, GULF members have created task forces, which report to the broader community once a year. Below is a synthesis of the activities in each area.
Capacity Building
At the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009, GULF members and other university leaders signed a common statement on the responsibility of leading universities in capacity building. Synergies were created between the GULF and the African University Leaders Forum at the summit on "The Next Generation of Academics in Africa" in November 2008 in Accra, where a team of GULF members participated. The plan is to follow up on the summit by engaging the World Bank and other key players from the public and private sector to explore synergetic opportunities for the GULF in Africa. In the meantime, GULF members will collect examples and best practices of their different activities on the continent.
Examples and best practices:
Environmental Sustainability
Early in 2008, the GULF agreed to focus on energy issues and on the development of energy efficient campuses, which have benign environmental footprints. A conference, “Sustainable Academic and Corporate Campuses: Time to Implement
” will take place in June 2009 at EPFL. Hosted jointly by the International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN)
and the GULF, the conference will bring together different networks of universities and corporations involved in sustainable campus practices, which have made sustainability a priority, to promote the exchange of best practices on sustainability and understanding of different advantages and synergies among the existing networks.
Digital Enterprises
The involvement of different GULF universities in digital dissemination of content, along with the substantial technological advancements of the last decade, led to the idea to create a searchable database of world-class online educational materials. A meeting in autumn 2009 at Tecnólogico Monterrey will bring together key deputies of the GULF members for strategic interlinkages in joint digital dissemination projects.
Middle East: Partnership and Challenges
Part of the Middle East is pursuing advances for scientific research and higher education that involve ambitious partnerships with GULF institutions and others; at the Annual Meeting 2009, the community held a discussion on these initiatives and the new forms of emerging collaboration. At the World Economic Forum on the Middle East, Dead Sea, Jordan, 15 - 17 May, the World Economic Forum plans to launch a long-term strategy for scientific research and higher education in the region. In a workshop, the Forum will bring together policy-makers from the region, university and business leaders and a selected group of Arab scientists from the region and the diaspora.
Faith and Globalization
At the GULF Winter Meeting 2009 in Davos-Klosters, Tony Blair presented the work of his Faith Foundation, exploring the interest of GULF members to develop a “Faith and Globalization” course in their universities along the lines of an ongoing course taught by Tony Blair at Yale University.
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