Ashraf AboArafe
Ambassador Christian Berger, head of the EU Delegation to Egypt gave a speach at this occasion as follows:
It is a pleasure for me to address this distinguished audience and open this important event.
The EU and Egypt enjoy a long standing cooperation in research and innovation. This year – 2024 – marks 14 years since the EU-Egypt Science and technology agreement came into force, and we believe that scientific cooperation is one of the most important pillars of our cooperation.
Women scientists, academics and researchers have contributed significantly in our cooperation with Egypt. They have been active participants in EU funded projects under EU programmes; including Horizon and Erasmus plus. They have contributed by pushing forward our cooperation in different thematic areas. The EU is committed to women empowerment within and outside its borders, of course including Egypt.
Carlos Moedas, former European Commissioner for Research, once said….and I quote him … “if we succeed, maybe we will get to the point where we won’t hear “women scientist” anymore. We just hear “scientist”. This year – on the occasion of international day for women in science – Commissioner Iliana Ivanova highlighted the concrete actions and measures already taken by the EU to strengthen the gender dimension of research and innovation as well as specifically support women in STEM, and she concluded that : we still need more women in science.
Horizon Europe, the EU’s programme for research and innovation, promotes the creation of gender-equal working environments and the integration of the gender dimension into all research and innovation content. In fact, with Horizon Europe, the Commission strengthened its commitment to gender equality by making the possession of a Gender Equality Plan an eligibility criterion for all higher education establishments, research organisations, as well as public bodies from Member States and Associated Countries applying for the programme.
Let me seize the opportunity to encourage you to explore research and innovation funding opportunities under Horizon Europe, as well as PRIMA, the Partnership for research and innovation in the Mediterranean Area, where calls are currently open for applications.
A concrete example of what we do: The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) under Horizon Europe supports career development and mobility of researchers. MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships are open to excellent researchers of any nationality, including researchers wishing to reintegrate in Europe, researchers who are displaced by conflict as well as researchers with high potential aiming for a career restart in research. Gender provisions are paying off in MSCA, with women researchers making up over 42% of beneficiaries at all career levels and 46% of doctoral candidates. Again, I encourage Egyptian researchers to explore the currently open calls.
Let me conclude by saying that Egypt has a wealth of researchers and more than 40% are women. I hope that events such as that of today and initiatives to support further empowerment and inclusion of women in this field will ensure gender balance that for sure will contribute to societal relevance of produced knowledge, technologies and innovations.
Thank you very much and wish you a successful event.
