Massive participation in the Center’s round table on research cooperation in issues and fields of energy security and environment

Executive Director of the Center: Human and financial challenges facing scientific research in the region

‘Research cooperation in issues and fields of energy and environmental security… priorities and mechanisms’ is the title of the round table organized by Saif Bin Helal Center for Studies and Research in Energy Sciences and attended by a crowd of representatives of the relevant research centers and several African embassies in Cairo.

The roundtable participants produced many important recommendations, whether concerning supporting scientific research in countries in the region or supporting cooperation and networking relations between various research centers, whether inside or outside the Arab region. Saif Bin Helal, founder and CEO of The International Agency for Energy Security (IAFES), and Saif Bin Helal Center, announced that at the top of these recommendations is the establishment of a network for joint research cooperation, whose mission is to coordinate between research centers concerned with various topics and issues, especially in the fields of energy and environment, whether inside Egypt or outside it. This network is affiliated with specialized committees and working groups, and its first meeting will be held in mid-January at the headquarters of Saif Bin Helal Center for Studies and Research in Energy Sciences. The network will be entitled ‘Global Network for Knowledge and Research Cooperation, ‘he said.

In her speech at the opening session, Nashwa Nashaat, Executive Director of Saif Bin Helal Center, stressed the Center’s keenness to bring together in this research forum a diversity of people with different goals and orientations and representatives of the concerned authorities at the local, regional, and international levels. Representatives of some African embassies in Cairo, South Sudan, Congo, and Gabon, as well as the United Nations Office in Cairo and the Energy and Environment Committees of the Arab League, participated, she noted.

At the local level, research centers of various specializations and fields participated, in addition to representatives of the two chambers of the Parliament’s ‘upper house and lower house, in addition to representatives of specialized government institutes, she said.

Scientific research is an essential feature for the development and progress of societies, as countries’ progress is measured by what they achieve in this field at all local, regional, and international levels. In addition to the important role that scientific research provides in achieving sustainable development goals, Nashaat stressed.

Nashaat pointed to the results of an important study conducted last year by the Middle East and North Africa Research Center, affiliated with the Spanish research organization “Simago,” which included 391 research centers, representing 22 countries in the region. It stated that nine Egyptian research institutes are among the best 20 institutions in the region, and the National Research Center ranked first in the region, while the classification was based on three main indicators, including research, innovation, and societal impact.

Enriching research work is on top of the goals of establishing Saif Bin Helal Center for Studies and Research in Energy Sciences, which was established in December 2022, Nashaat said. Based on the Center’s awareness of the importance of research cooperation between research centers with different specializations and interests, this round table was held to discuss cooperation in issues and fields of energy security and the environment, she explained.

She pointed out that there are challenges to scientific research, especially in the Arab region. On top of these challenges are human obstacles related to the small number of researchers and the weak efficiency of some of them. In addition to financial obstacles related to limited funding and the low budgets allocated by some countries for scientific research, as well as the lack of cooperation between research centers and the lack of an information base therein.

The roundtable participants produced some important recommendations, whether concerning supporting scientific research in countries in the region or supporting cooperation and networking relations between various research centers, whether inside or outside the Arab region. Saif Bin Helal, founder and CEO of The International Agency for Energy Security (IAFES), and Saif Bin Helal Center, announced that at the top of these recommendations is the establishment of a network for joint research cooperation, whose mission is to coordinate between research centers concerned with various topics and issues, especially in the fields of energy and environment, whether inside Egypt or outside it. This network is affiliated with specialized committees and working groups, and its first meeting will be held in mid-January at the headquarters of Saif Bin Helal Center for Studies and Research in Energy Sciences.

The network will be entitled ‘Global Network for Knowledge and Research Cooperation,‘ he said.

The participants stressed that current changes in countries around the world, especially those in the Arab world, require attention to strategic planning to confront these changes by building a generation of qualified young people competent for research. They looked forward to future challenges that require attention to scientific research through the establishment of research centers in all specialties.

The participants called for developing a strategy to promote scientific research that includes encouraging and spreading the culture of scientific research in the Arab region specifically and the whole world and exchanging experiences and knowledge between researchers in the Arab region and the whole world.

They also noted the need to strengthen cooperation and research networking with different specializations and fields of research centers, whether in the Arab region or outside it, and that is through a series of discussions, seminars, and scientific conferences on various fields and issues of research, including energy and environmental issues. As well as a series of specific trainings for youth on energy issues in their various political, economic, and strategic dimensions and the joint exchange of different research publications, reports, and studies. In addition to raising the budgets allocated to scientific research, investing in Arab immigrant minds, and working to limit their immigration, provide them with material and moral incentives to encourage them and increase their production. Moreover, encouraging the private sector to contribute to financing specialized scientific research, achieving integration between scientific research institutions to develop and activate the scientific, technical, and information bases, and establishing joint research centers.

Participants in the roundtable discussions included representatives of the Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RCREEE), the National Water Research Center, the National Center for Studies, Wind Energy Manufacturing Triple M Company,the British University College of Energy, the Faculty of Science at Cairo University, the Egyptian Youth Council, the Innovation Center at Ain Shams University, Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, the Cabinet Information Center, the Renewable Energy Research Center at Menoufia University, the Ra Center for Strategic Studies, the Pharos Center for Strategic Studies, the Tabbin Institute for Mineral Studies, the Nile Foundation for African Studies, and the Atomic Energy Authority.