10/03/2021

Minister‎ ‎of‎ ‎Higher‎ ‎Education‎ ‎Chairs‎ ‎Meeting‎ ‎of‎ ‎Innovators‎ ‎and‎ ‎Geniuses‎ ‎Care‎ ‎Fund

 Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, chaired Tuesday evening at the Ministry's headquarters in New Cairo the regular meeting of the Board of Directors of the Innovators and Geniuses Fund which was attended by Dr.  Yasser Refaat, Deputy Minister for Scientific Research, Dr.  Mohammed Ayman Ashour, Deputy Minister for University Affairs, Dr.  Mahmoud Saqr, President of the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, Dr. Mohamed Amer, Executive Director of the Fund, and members of the Board.

 During the meeting, the minister stressed that Egypt has innovators and geniuses in many fields, noting that the ministry prioritizes innovation and invention by providing the necessary support to benefit from these innovations and inventions. He pointed out the importance of integration and coordination between all concerned parties within the ministry to achieve the fund goals.

 Dr. added.  Khaled Abdel Ghaffar said that the fund aims to support, finance, and sponsor researchers, innovators, and science, technology and innovation projects, and find new financing mechanisms.

 The minister indicated that the coming period will witness more interest in innovation, the implementation of new mechanisms to incubate the ideas of innovators. He stressed that the priority will be given to the ideas that the country needs and the most appropriate of them will be chosen through an accurate and scientific evaluation of innovation.  The fund will also provide scholarships to innovators and talented students to complete their studies at home and abroad by encouraging individuals and private and community sectors to do so.

 The Minister pointed out that the Innovators Care Fund will be financier for the ideas of innovations and inventions, and will bring them to the evaluation and activation stage for their display in the market. He indicated that the funding depends on multiple resources not on the state budget.

  The Board also approved the formation of a committee to prepare a proposal for the strategic plan and the draft general plan for operating the Fund and mechanisms for implementation.

 The Board also discussed forming working groups to conduct the necessary studies in preparation for launching a set of programs to implement the Fund's objectives to submit them to the Board of Directors for approval and launch as soon as possible. These programs include:

 - Providing technical and scientific support for innovative ideas of youth and juniors, in order to help them to obtain patents for competitive products with economic returns.

 - Providing scholarships to successful candidates to complete their studies at home and abroad in the specialized fields of science and technology that serve the state's sustainable plan.

 - Providing the necessary support to enable innovators to register their innovative ideas as patents to keep their intellectual property rights.

- Carrying out market studies and feasibility studies to support innovators and helping in conveying these studies to different entities to benefit from them economically.

 - Implementing prototypes for innovative ideas with good economic feasibility and return.

 - Partnering and establishing companies to economically implement patents and innovations.

 - Spreading awareness of the culture of innovation and invention.

- Organizing conferences, workshops, seminars and training courses, preparing and disseminating scientific materials to spread awareness of the culture of innovation and invention to attract juniors and youth to the fields of innovation and invention.

 - Providing incentives and prizes to innovators and talents to encourage them to continue to present distinguished ideas.

It should be taken into consideration that the study of each program will include the program goal, a complete description of the program, targeted groups, mechanisms, procedures and work regulations for managing the program, a description of the work team needed to manage the program, the timing of the announcement, the duration of implementation, the estimated cost of implementation, and program outputs and the method of their evaluation, so that the programs are eventually announced with full transparency and are judged with impartiality and fairness.