The Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) was established in 1994 as a realization of an ambitious plan envisaged by the Nobel Laureate from Pakistan, Prof. Dr. Abdus Salam. The plan was to support and catalyze the socio-economic uplift of the developing countries by promoting and inculcating S&T as an effective means of development. As the name suggests, the foundation of the organization has three major dimensions: Sustainable Development, Science and Technology (S&T) and the South.
The idea of establishing a high-level Commission on Science and Technology as an apex body for countries of the South was based on the view that the increasingly widening gap of scientific know-how between the North and the South is leading to persistent disparities of economic strengths and that sustainable socio-economic development in the South cannot be achieved without building and sustaining indigenous capacities in science and technology. For developing countries to generate and sustain such capacities strengthening South-South and North-South cooperation is essential.