In 2003, the Governments of Pakistan and the United States signed a comprehensive Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement that established a framework to increase cooperation in science, technology, engineering and education for mutual benefit and peaceful purposes between the science and education communities in both countries. In 2005, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) joined with the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan to support the joint Pakistan-United States Science and Technology Cooperation Program. Beginning in 2008, the United States Department of State (DoS) joined USAID as a U.S. co-sponsor of the program. This program is implemented by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in the U.S. and by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in Pakistan, and is intended to increase the strength and breadth of cooperation and linkages between Pakistani scientists and institutions with counterparts in the United States.