28/06/2021

Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Chairs Meeting ‎of Board of Directors of the Care for Innovators and Geniuses Fund

Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, chaired at the Ministry's headquarters on Sunday evening the periodic meeting of the Board of Directors of the Care for Innovators and Geniuses Fund, in the presence of Dr. Yasser Refaat, Deputy Minister for Scientific Research Affairs, Dr. Mahmoud Saqr, President of the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, Dr. Mohamed Amer, Executive Director of the Fund, and the fund's members.

At the beginning of the meeting, the minister stressed the importance of spreading scientific culture and raising awareness of the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship in our daily lives. He also stressed the importance of the fund's support for the state's goals to reach a knowledge-based economy. He explained that the culture of innovation must be developed through holding seminars and workshops targeting young people of different age groups. He pointed out that the Ministry pays great attention to innovation and invention, by providing available support and coordinating with all concerned parties inside and outside the ministry to achieve the objectives of the fund and to benefit from these innovations and inventions.

Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar pointed out that the fund aims to support and sponsor researchers, innovators, and science, technology and innovation projects, and to find new and advanced mechanisms for financing them. He pointed out that the coming period would witness more interest in innovation and implementation of new mechanisms to embrace ideas of innovators. He stressed that priority would be given to ideas that have economic returns and enhance national industry to reduce imports from abroad.

Dr. Mohamed Amer presented a report on the activity and work process of the fund during the last period, the action plan, and the programs that would be launched in the coming period.

During the meeting, launching the fund's website and social media pages with their content to be permanently updated,  and creating an electronic platform to communicate with innovators and geniuses were announced in addition to creating databases to register experts and advisory agencies and offices in various fields that would cooperate with the fund to perform its tasks and activating a smart system for electronic correspondence which would enable the fund to communicate with registrants on a regular basis to receive all news of the fund in their preferred way.

The Board approved the proposed strategic plan for the fund during the period from 2021-2024, a twelve month executive plan, as well as a proposal for the fund's organizational structure and functions of the fund's  departments.

The Board also approved the launch of the Marketing Acceleration program, which serves as a basic platform for the Fund's activities and can be expanded to cover more than one of the Fund's objectives, such as providing technical and scientific support for developing ideas and registering patents, providing market and feasibility studies, implementing patent prototypes, and establishing partnerships and companies to implement patents and innovations on an economical basis.

A package of programs aimed at spreading culture and raising awareness of the importance of innovation and invention for different age groups was launched in different ways. The package includes several programs that are presented periodically to youth  and innovators through holding seminars, workshops on innovation and an international innovation conference and exhibition; issuing a magazine to publish the culture of innovation in Arabic; establishing the Innovation Corner program meant to develop innovative talents for children aged 4-15 by providing different games, tools and educational materials suitable for every age; as well as announcing the ISF Club to accept volunteers from university students and graduates to train and participate in organizing and implementing some of the fund's activities.

The council also approved the launch of several electronic platforms, such as the "Ibdaa" platform to provide innovative educational content via MOOCs, the ISF Community social networking platform, and the InnConnect virtual video conferencing platform.

The Board of Directors approved the signing by the Fund of a cooperation protocol with the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology to implement the "Apply Your Patent" program, which aims to transform technical information on patents and utility models protected in accordance with the Egyptian Intellectual Property Rights Protection Law No. 82/2002 into industrial products that are marketable with a view to supporting  knowledge economy, raising the level of technology in the Egyptian industrialized and marketed products and contributing to introducing highly competitive innovative products in the Egyptian market.

The Council also agreed to cooperate with the Education Sector of the Ministry of Education in the project funded by USAID, which aims to boost STEM students in the fields of intellectual property and innovation.

It is worth noting that the Fund is developing a program to provide scholarships to innovators and talented students to complete their studies at home and abroad. The program will include scientific fundamentals that comply with international standards for selecting the best applicants through a competitive advertisement with all details and criteria. Individuals and private and community sectors will also be encouraged to cooperate with the fund to achieve its goals.