DUBAI — King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) will host an event celebrating six months of Nature Arabic Edition (NAE), a new source for high quality science news in Arabic.



The celebrations will be held as part of the Saudi International Conference on Science Culture in Riyadh, Tuesday.



Highlights of the NAE event will include speeches from KACST President Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Suwaiyel, Editor-in-Chief of the English version of Nature Philip Campbell and Steven Inchcoombe, managing director of Nature Publishing Group.



NAE, sponsored for five years by KACST, has a print circulation of 10,000 and is freely accessible online at arabicedition.nature.com.



NAE provides top quality science news and features from Nature, the world’s premier multidisciplinary journal, as well as summaries of all the research papers published in the journal.



The content is selected from Nature by NAE Chief Editor Dr. Magdy Said to ensure it is most relevant for the Arab speaking community.



KACST and NPG share a goal to further develop in Arabic speakers a love for science and highlight opportunities in this field.



Al-Suwaiyel said: “KACST is committed to developing and investing in the national science, technology and innovation eco-system to promote a knowledge-based society that serves the Kingdom’s goals for sustainable development.



“Educational and research programs are key to realizing this goal and the collaboration supports this initiative.



“In its efforts towards promoting a knowledge-based society, KACST has worked to enrich Arabic content and make it available to all Arabic speakers.



“These efforts now include working with Nature Publishing Group in translating valuable content.



As well as introducing NAE, speakers at the event will be addressing issues such as the partnership between NPG and KACST in supporting the scientific culture in the Arabic speaking world, the challenges that face researchers, journals and funders in global scientific research, as well as the future growth and potential of the science and technology education sector in the Middle East.



From October 2012 to date, more than 65,000 unique users have visited the NAE website.