Egypt’s Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Abdel Aziz Konsowa, announced on Friday that the ministry is implementing a comprehensive strategy to strengthen the country’s position as a regional hub for higher education, scientific research, and innovation.
According to the minister, the plan focuses on modernising the education and research ecosystem, maximising the return on state investments, and aligning academic output with national development priorities and labour market demands to foster a knowledge-based economy.
The new strategy is built upon three core pillars: expanding the international presence of Egyptian higher education, promoting a knowledge-based economy by bridging the gap between academia and commerce, and developing infrastructure, alongside institutional and human capabilities.
Minister Konsowa emphasized that the ministry is shifting its evaluation of scientific research away from mere publication numbers, focusing instead on its real-world economic and social impact.
“Egypt has published 46,313 international research papers, with 53.5 per cent appearing in prestigious Q1 journals, ranking the country 25th globally in international scientific publishing,”Konsowa noted.
He added that Egypt now boasts more than 140,000 researchers listed in the Scopus database — including 1,105 who rank among the world’s top two per cent of scientists — and has climbed to 86thplace in the Global Innovation Index.
To cultivate an ecosystem that directly connects universities and research centres with the industrial sector, the ministry is building a national research, development, and innovation framework.
This network will utilise a “national challenges bank”, technology transfer and marketing units, business accelerators, and dedicated science and technology parks.
The strategy also introduces a new academic promotion track based on innovation and contribution to the knowledge economy, dedicated funding streams for industry-focused research, and the launch of the flagship “From University to Factory” initiative, which is designed to seamlessly transfer research and innovation into the industrial sector.
In a major infrastructure update, the minister announced a national project in co-operation with the Ministry of Military Production to modernise the country’s central laboratories.
The initiative will create a cloud-based digital network linking universities, research centres, government agencies, and industry partners to optimize the use of scientific equipment and digital services.
