Iraqi scientists have decided to set up a new scientific academy to attract researchers back to Iraq and help develop a research strategy for the war-ravaged country.

The decision was taken at a meeting of a dozen Iraqi scientists and engineers at the Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences, in London.

The group agreed a charter, and elected a standing committee to hold a meeting of the academy’s council in Baghdad in 2004. The academy is backed by the Royal Society, the US National Academy of Sciences and the French Academie des Sciences, but so far has received no private sector investment.

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