United Nations/European Space Agency Workshops on Basic Space Science
In 1958, the United Nations (UN) formally recognized a new potential for international cooperation by establishing an ad hoc Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). A year later the Committee became a permanent body, and by 1983 membership had expanded to 53 states, with more than half of the members coming from the developing world. In 1970, COPUOS established the UN Program on Space Applications in order to strengthen cooperation in space science and technology between non-industrialized and industrialized countries. In the last few years, the UN and its COPUOS have paid increasing attention to education and research in space science and technology, including basic space science. In 1991 the UN, in cooperation with ESA, initiated the organization of annual Workshops in Basic Space Science for developing countries. These Workshops are designed to be held in one of the following major regions: Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Western Asia, and Europe. Accordingly, Basic Space Science Workshops have already been held in India (1991), Costa Rica andColombia (1992), and Nigeria (1993). The fourth Workshop was held from 27 June to 1 July 1994 at the Cairo University, in Egypt, for Western Asia.