EU’s €20 million boost to R&D ties with Egypt

The European Union will offer €20 million to Egypt to promote research and innovation, according to an article on the website of the EU's Directorate-general for Research.

The announcement was made by the Ambassador of the European Delegation in Egypt Marc Franco at the first Euro-Mediterranean Innovation Marketplace in Heliopolis, Egypt late last month. The funds will be earmarked for the Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) programme that was established under the EC-Egypt bilateral Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement in 2007.

"Innovation is key to recovery and to building [a] more sustainable economy and society after the crisis," Ambassador Franco was quoted as telling members of the event. The Euro-Mediterranean Innovation Marketplace is a communications platform and an information hub for researchers, inventors, academia and industry.

According to RDI coordinator Abdelhamid El-Zoheiry: "With more than 200 exhibitors and 50 speakers representing diverse organisations from about 18 European and Mediterranean countries, the Euro-Mediterranean Innovation Marketplace offers a valuable platform for major science and innovation players to meet, network and further develop business ideas, projects and partnerships."

However, despite the country's willingness to boost regional innovation, local innovators face a number of challenges in bringing their ideas to fruition.

Professor Bahaa Shawky of the National Research Center in Egypt commented that the government should be more instrumental in searching for and supporting ideas. He invented a solution that facilitates that release of biomass energy from cellulose-rich plants, a process that fuels clean renewable energy development.

Officials note that thanks to the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), which has a €53 billion budget over a period of 7 years, the government in Egypt will have more opportunities to obtain money for research.