Research, Development & Innovation Programme - RDI

The participated in the EU-Egypt Higher Education, Science & Innovation Day organized by the to Egypt in collaboration with the Ministry of Scientific Research in Oct. 9th, at the Greek Campus. The day aimed at celebrating the existing cooperation and promoting further collaboration. This event was inaugurated by the speeches of H.E. Ivan Surkos- Ambassador of the European Union to Egypt and Prof. Essam Khamis- Egyptian Deputy Minister for Scientific Research followed by a panel discussion on "Education & Innovation for Job Creation". The day was ended by an open exhibition showcasing EU countries programmes for Higher Education, Research & Innovation.
The 's booth presented 4 of its projects which covered the fields of energy, ICT, agriculture and social innovation.

It has been realized that there are many Egyptian researchers working in the same area that have no links between them and/or with companies, SMEs, investors, public entities and NGOs interested in the outcome of their research for solving industrial and societal challenges and for creating new businesses and public services. In this context, RDI-2 has built on the international experiences, where different countries have implemented the innovation clusters successfully to establish long-term collaboration among different actors: research institutions, universities, companies, investors and public administrations; and initiated for the first time in Egypt a new component to assist the government in establishing business driven Innovation Clusters, to support research based innovation in Egypt through development of closer and long-term links between the different actors in research, industry and business sectors relevant to national and EU research and innovation priorities (i.e.: renewable energy, food, aquatic resources, sustainable tourism, education and lifelong learning, research and innovation management); in addition it provides a tool to better channel resources, through exchange of ideas, know-how, knowledge, and research and innovation capabilities between public and private stakeholders for identification of business opportunities and future demands from the industry and society, and of the appropriate actors for meeting these through applied collaborative research. Moreover, clustering facilitate cooperation with similar European researchers and industries by highlighting the main actors contributing to innovation in strategic sectors in Egypt, leading to the enhancement of the industry competitiveness and hence the country’s economic growth.