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"To honour the work of developing world scientists and to help give them the tools that they need to do worldclass research”.

Those are the key goals of The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), an international organization that promotes scientific capacity and excellence in the South. Founded in 1983 by a group of eminent scientists under the leadership of the late Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam of Pakistan, TWAS was officially launched in 1985 by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Javier Perez de Cuellar.
Today TWAS has 630 members from 76 countries (including 62 developing countries).
The TWAS secretariat is located on the premises of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP). A major portion of TWAS funding is provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy. Other sources of funding include the Swedish International Development Agency’s Department for Research Cooperation (Sida-SAREC) and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is responsible for the administration of TWAS funds and staff.
The main objectives of TWAS are to:
• recognize, support and promote excellence in scientific research in the South;
• provide promising scientists in the South with research facilities necessary for the advancement of their work;
• facilitate contacts between individual scientists and institutions in the South;
• encourage South-North cooperation between individuals and centres of scholarship.

In 1988 TWAS helped to establish the Third World Network of Scientific Organizations (TWNSO), a nongovernmental alliance of 154 scientific organizations from Third World countries. TWNSO assists in building political and scientific leadership for science-based economic development in the South and promotes sustainable development through broad-based partnerships in science and technology.

TWAS also played a key role in the establishment of the Third World Organization for Women in Science (TWOWS), which was officially launched in 1993. More than 2000 women scientists from over 80 Third World countries currently belong to TWOWS. Its main objectives are to promote research and training opportunities for women scientists in the Third World and to strengthen their role in the decision-making and development processes. The secretariat of TWOWS is hosted and assisted by TWAS.

Since May 2000, TWAS has served as the secretariat for the InterAcademy Panel on International Issues (IAP), a global network of 85 science academies worldwide established in 1993. IAP’s primary goal is to help member academies work together to inform citizens and advise decision-makers on the scientific aspects of critical global issues.