Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Abdel-Aziz Konsowa announced the launch of an integrated national system to link scientific research more closely with industry this week, as part of ministry plans to shift towards a knowledge-based economy and maximise the benefit of universities and research centres supporting economic development and achieving the goals of Egypt Vision 2030.
According to Konsowa, the ministry’s vision is based on three main pillars: the internationalisation of Egyptian education; the transition towards a knowledge-based economy; and the development of infrastructure and institutional and human capacities, while linking the outcomes of education and scientific research to development needs and the labour market.
Evaluation of Egypt’s universities will no longer be limited to recording the volume of scientific publications but will also include measuring the economic and societal impacts of research and transforming knowledge into solutions, technologies, and products that support industry and meet the state’s needs, Konsowa said.
Egypt has made significant progress in scientific research indicators, with a total of around 46,000 internationally published research papers, 53.5 per cent of which were published in Q1 journals, ranking Egypt 25th globally in international scientific publishing, said Adel Abdel-Ghaffar, an official spokesman to the ministry.
Q1 journals are the most influential and widely cited in their specific field, reflecting high editorial standards and rigorous peer review.
According to the ministry, more than 140,000 Egyptian researchers are registered in the Scopus database, while 1,106 Egyptian scientists were included in the 2025 Stanford–Elsevier list of the world’s top two per cent of researchers.
Egypt has also advanced to 86th place in the Global Innovation Index. Abdel-Ghaffar stressed that these figures support plans to make scientific research a key pillar of production and development.
The ministry is working to establish an integrated national research, development, and innovation ecosystem that connects universities and research centres with industry through a national challenge bank, he said, while expanding networks of central laboratories, technology transfer and commercialisation units, business accelerators, and science and technology areas.
The aim is to ensure that research outputs are transformed into marketable applications and products.
There will be a new track for academic promotions based on the knowledge economy and innovation, alongside the current purely academic track, Abdel-Ghaffar said. This will include funding industry-related research, activating Technology Readiness Level, Manufacturing Readiness Level, and Commercial Readiness Level (TRL–MRL–CRL) alliances, and strengthening partnerships with industry and production entities to better align scientific research with market needs, he added.
This will be part of the launch of the “From University to Factory” initiative that is aimed at transferring knowledge from universities and research centres to factories and linking scientific research to the resolution of industrial challenges. A collaborative model will be adopted with phased funding that begins with government support and later expands into partnerships with the industrial sector.
Abdel-Ghaffar stressed that the ministry is also working to complete the institutional pathway for transforming innovation into economic products. He noted that the innovation commercialisation pathway begins with an idea or patent, followed by readiness assessment, prototype development, and industrial testing, leading to licensing, the establishment of a startup, or industrial adoption. This ensures the institutionalised transition from the laboratory to the market.
He explained that the ministry has developed research programmes targeting state priorities in artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, health, food security, water, and climate change. A network of “living labs” will also be established across the governorates to test solutions in real-world settings, helping to strengthen innovation and transform it into products that support the national economy.
The participating universities will include all the state institutions. According to Amany Osama, vice president of Ain Shams University for postgraduate studies and research, the programme targets various academic disciplines and is not limited to engineering or applied fields.
It gives researchers the opportunity to work full-time inside factories for a period ranging from four to six months. The principal researcher must be a faculty member at a public university or a government research centre or institute and must hold a PhD in a relevant field.
The researcher must also be fully dedicated to working inside the factory throughout the duration of the project. Preference is given to researchers at an early stage of their careers, with the aim of developing research professionals capable of combining academic depth with practical experience in industrial environments.
The host factory must be an established Egyptian industrial entity operating within Egypt and must be capable of hosting the researcher and providing access to the production processes, data, facilities, and technical teams necessary to ensure the efficient and effective implementation of the project.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 9 July, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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