The flight from Erbil to London in 2008 was not merely a routine journey between two cities, but a pivotal station for developing a national idea whose contours first emerged during the World Higher Education Conference in Erbil, held from December 11–13, 2007. In that atmosphere, and after the general vision crystallized, I revealed the idea to Professor Dilawar Aladdin, who enthusiastically approved it, and Professor Riyad Al-Mehaidi soon joined us. Together we laid the foundations of a project to unify Iraqi academic energies in the diaspora.
No sooner had this vision begun to take shape than deep discussions about it were renewed on the sands of the "Gold Coast" in Australia, during my participation in the Cell Culture Engineering XI Conference held in April 2008. In those surroundings, while walking with my loyal friend Professor Muthanna Al-Dahan, I discussed with him the details of the gathering and how to transform this academic diaspora into a driving force to serve the homeland. I proposed the idea of establishing a global assembly of Iraqi scientists abroad. He wisely pointed out that some claimants might lack true achievement, potentially undermining the assembly's credibility. Thus, we agreed on a strict criterion: membership should be restricted to full professors in Western universities or those with documented and pioneering scientific achievements, thus completing the vision and laying the true foundations for establishing the "Network of Iraqi Scientists Abroad" (NISA).
From those foundational moments, I was honored to chair this network, which operates its affairs with a purely voluntary spirit, relying on its members' capabilities, time, and effort. It has become an independent, non-profit international organization, with cyberspace as its headquarters and Baghdad as a spiritual and national meeting point to unite our scientific elite, always committed to the strict membership condition in attracting those who have reached the rank of professorship or leadership of global scientific centers with qualitative research contributions.
We launched NISA from a firm belief that science and technology are the vital component in any sustainable development process. We made our primary mission to provide expertise and support in various fields of knowledge, train scientists and technicians, and transfer modern technology to Iraqi institutions. Our highest goal was to compensate for the deficiency caused by brain drain by building a solid knowledge bridge connecting Western universities with the Iraqi interior, far from any political alignments, emphasizing the human and cultural values of science in combating poverty, injustice, and achieving well-being for the Iraqi people in all its components. To achieve this, we set an ambitious program in cooperation with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the Higher Committee for Education Development, including reforming the postgraduate system, activating dual supervision programs, receiving large numbers of scholarship students in our universities, and even implementing twinning programs for undergraduate studies with a (2+2) system to enable Iraqi students to obtain a global education.