NITUB

NITUB: Its Mission

NITUB is a voluntary, non-profitable, non-political learned society dedicated to scientific education and research in Bangladesh. Its primary mission is to ensure that scientific equipment of the educational institutions, research organizations and public & private enterprises function properly and scientific activities do not suffer for non-functioning equipment. To make this mission successful NITUB's activities are targeted towards generating skilled technical personnel in all sectors through training and to offer technical help with NITUB's pool of technicians whenever instrument maintenance and repair services are needed.

Genesis of NITUB

The major problem in scientific research and education in third world countries like Bangladesh is that costly scientific instruments can not be afforded. Ironically, whatever instruments are there, either from its own sources or as donations, remain non-functional in many cases. This is due to insufficient technical knowledge of the scientists and scarcity of properly trained technical personnel in the country. The difficulties in maintaining & repairing of scientific instruments faced by the IPICS (International Programme in the Chemical Sciences) Fellows and IFS (International Foundation for Science) Grantees were discussed with the authorities of IPICS & IFS for finding ways and means to solve the problem. It was agreed that the country has to develop its own capability for proper use, maintenance and repair of scientific instruments.

With the aim of improving technical skill a Workshop on Instrument Maintenance and Repair was organized in 1991 by the IFS grantees and IPICS fellows of Bangladesh in the Department of Chemistry, University of Dhaka.
The Workshop generated enthusiasm & confidence among the scientists and a broad based workshop involving all universities and research organizations was recommended. Accordingly a second Workshop was organized in January 1994.

The second workshop was attended by 40 scientists and technical personnel from different educational and research organizations of Bangladesh in three batches. The theoretical lectures were held in the Department of Chemistry, University of Dhaka and the technical sessions of the workshop were held at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh and Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) laboratories, Chittagong.

The workshop was conducted by 6 foreign experts from ICAT (International Centre for Advanced Technology), Luton College, UK and 8 local resource persons. IFS was the main sponsor of the second workshop. A post workshop meeting was held which was attended by the resource persons, organizers, IFS and IPICS representatives. It was recommended at the meeting that a Network be formed to address the issue of proper use, maintenance and repair of scientific equipment.

Soon afterwards the local organizers made a proposal for NITUB and the proposal was placed before the Asian Coordinating Group of Chemistry (ACGC) in a meeting on 18 June 1994 in Melaka, Malaysia during the Eight Asian Symposium on Medicinal Plants, Spices and Other Natural Products (ASOMPS VIII). The proposal was supported by IFS, IPICS, UNESCO and the Federation of Asian Chemical Society (FACS) representatives present in the meeting. A resolution supporting the formation of the Network of Instrument Technical personnel and User scientists of Bangladesh (NITUB) was adopted at the meeting. NITUB was formally launched on 19 July 1994.

Aims and objectives of NITUB

The aims and objectives of NITUB are:

+ to improve upon the capabilities of the technical personnel and user scientists in handling, maintaining, trouble-shooting and repairing of scientific instruments.
+ to maintain an inventory of available scientific instruments and its present status of different institutions.
+ to maintain an inventory of technical personnel who can offer technical assistance to NITUB.

+ to repair instruments and offer technical services to different educational and research institutions of Bangladesh by the technical personnel from the pool of NITUB and if necessary, to procure the services of foreign technical experts.

to create a stock of spare parts and accessories required for repair of instruments on a routine basis and make them available to various institutions as and when necessary.

+ to conduct training courses for the technical personnel and user scientists on different types of scientific instrument.
+ to fabricate scientific instruments for educational and research purposes.

Finance of NITUB

Initially NITUB received some financial support from IFS and IPICS. It also received some money from UNESCO for particular training programmes. Later, from 1996. NITUB has been recognized as a supported Network of ISP (International Science Programme, Uppsala university, Sweden) and at present ISP is the main supporting agency of NITUB. Ministry of Science and Information & Communication Technology, Government of Bangladesh, University Grants Commission (UGC), BCSIR also gave financial support to NITUB public

universities and research organizations. Fund is also generated from training fee and service charges. NITUB has been using logistic supports from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) NITUB gratefully acknowledges the financial support and cooperation from all National and International organizations.