Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research announced that Iraq has officially joined the Synchrotron Council for Experimental Sciences and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME), which is specialized in advanced and distinguished scientific research.

Higher Education reviewed that the majority voted on Tuesday, corresponding to 7/11/2023, on Iraq joining the (SESAME) Center during the council meeting at  (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) in Spain.

For his part, Chairman of the Council, Professor Rolf Hoyer, and the former head of the European Organization for Nuclear Research confirmed approving Iraq's membership as an associate member, which will provide the appropriate field to support solid scientific research and enable Iraqi researchers to accomplish advanced scientific research and contribute to publish in international journals with a high impact factor that has a direct impact on the academic reputation of universities and their ranking worldwide.

It is worth to be mentioned that SESAME is the first international center of excellence in scientific research in the Middle East, similar to the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Europe, and it represents a joint governmental organization among member states under the auspices of UNESCO and hosted by Jordan, Middle East and neighboring countries in the fields of medicine, biology, science, physics, chemistry, health care, environment and archaeology, and contributes in building and bridging scientific cooperation between the countries of the region and the world.