Abu Dhabi (Al Ittihad)
The Trends Center for Research and Consultations participated yesterday in the work of the ISESCO Forum for Think Tanks organized by the Islamic World Organization for Education, Science and Culture (ICESCO) in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, in the presence of a group of research centers, thinkers and researchers to discuss the most important pioneering experiences of these centers, particularly in the field of forecasting and planning for the future.
Dr. Muhammad Abdullah Al-Ali, CEO of “Trends”, in his speech at the opening session, underlined the importance of this forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences and for strengthening the cooperation between research and thought centres, particularly in the field of predicting the future, especially in the circumstances the world is going through, which involve a great deal of ambiguity and uncertainty and the exacerbation, complexity and ramifications of crises.
He stated that the Trends Center strongly believes in the value and importance of strengthening cooperation between think tanks and research centers, in order to achieve common and constructive visions, understandings and ideas, in the service of our human society, indicating that in this context, the center annually organizes a round table for think tanks that brings together research and study centers. Influential, in various countries of the world, as it hosted the third session of this annual meeting last September, which has become a platform or a global framework for coordinating research work between think tanks and studios.
In this context, he mentioned the global forum organized by Trends in 2021 for think tanks, in coordination and partnership with the Lauder Institute of the University of Pennsylvania, which was attended by about 30 international research institutes, to discuss the scientific challenges facing think tanks face .
Dr. Al-Ali indicated that the Trends Center has more than 170 research and knowledge partnerships with research institutions and academics from around the world, explaining that his participation in this intellectual summit comes as a continuation of this approach and direction , in which he believes.
He stressed that the recent crises that the world has witnessed, especially the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, have demonstrated that the ability of think tanks to anticipate the future is still facing many challenges, which requires us to think about the development of tools and approaches that can help strengthen the ability to predict events and identify events and its future paths, especially in such circumstances, which are surrounded by ambiguity and are dominated by uncertainty, due to the accelerated changes taking place in the global environment.
He said that the Trends Center for Research and Consultation has been working on developing its research tools in the field of future forecasting to keep up with the rapid global developments in this field, so it has put an expressive slogan against his name, which is “From perspective to the future to participation in its realization”.
He said that the curricula and tools that Trends employs in its forward-thinking and future studies are diverse and that Trends plays an important role in developing future planning skills and scenario building for many government and private agencies, through a series of courses of training and workshops it offers to the employees of these agencies in the field of future perspective.
