ISLAMABAD, June 7 (INP): The sixth national conference on Physics and Emerging Sciences will be held here early next month to promote viable and quality research in the country and link it with the country’s socio-economic development. It is part of the activities being arranged by the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) on a regular basis, it was announced here on Thursday. The conference is being organized by the University’s Department of Physics in which commercially viable research-based projects of young researchers will also be displayed. It will be attended by eminent scientists, researchers, academicians as well as students of M Phil and PhD from all over the country. According to Dean Sciences Dr Syed Zafar Ilyas, the event is in line with the vision of the Vice Chancellor Dr Shahid Siddiqui that aimed at developing a research culture in the country and provide a platform to researchers for sharing and projecting their academic work and to make it beneficial for the society. Such activities also help to provide academic and scholarly input to the policy-makers in government institutions to improve the living conditions of the masses and address the new challenges in the socio-economic sector. Recently, the University has developed itself as a Research-based educational institution. To this effect during the last three and half years, 17 research journals were published, 34 national and international conferences and nearly 150 seminars were arranged on the initiative of the Vice Chancellor. The University’s science laboratories and the country-wide library network were also enriched for this purpose. The National Library here at the main Campus was made open for the general public from 8 am to 7 pm. It is now working as main source of research-based activities, the announcement added. INP/LK/AJ