Ammon News - The Irish Embassy in Amman has announced that two Jordanian contestants, who won first place in the Jordan Young Scientist (JoYS) initiative, will partake in a prominent young scientists exhibition that will be held in Dublin, Ireland, in mid-January.

Basel Abu Salameh and Seif Nakhleh from the Jubilee Institute, who this year won first place with their "Xchange" project, will be representing Jordan for the first time at the BT Young Scientist Exhibition, the longest-running STEM Exhibition in Europe, according to a statement released Tuesday by the embassy.

The 50-year-old exhibition was launched to incentivize the uptake of science in secondary schools, improve the standards of teaching science, and reward students who excelled in science projects, said the statement.

It added that the exhibition led to the development of a robust culture of science and innovation in the country, and it has contributed to Ireland’s economic growth by up-skilling the workforce in science and technology and helping develop a skilled workforce in Ireland, which assisted with attracting foreign direct investment.

Given the positive experience in Ireland, the statement continued, the newly established embassy in Amman proposed that the initiative could be introduced in Jordan. What followed was the national launch of JoYS at Al-Hussein Technical University in Amman and inaugurated by Minister of Culture Haifa Najjar.

Ambassador Marianne Bolger has mentioned that: "The Embassy of Ireland is extremely proud to be a co-sponsor of this wonderful initiative. The Embassy will pledge its support to continue to work with the hugely committed partners in the Jordan Young Scientist initiative to ensure its success for many years to come and help to contribute to building with plans underway to build an innovative future workforce and society which can respond to the pace of accelerated global changes, challenges, and opportunities. I would like to take the opportunity to wish Basel Abu Salameh and Seif Nakhleh well in their participation in the exhibition in Ireland."