Call 2: Applied Sciences Research Grants for Egypt

Deadline: 10-Oct-22

The Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) is pleased to announce a call for Proposals for the Innovation in Applied Sciences, Technologies and Industrialization Grant (ASG) scheme.

ASG provides competitive funding for transformation of discoveries. The main objective of this call is to bring into effect a product, a specific field methodology or a transformed technology which are important for the Egyptian economy. Direct contact should be established between academia and industry on high-technology. Small businesses and entrepreneurship are also considered in this call as partners or beneficiaries.

The call is directed to supporting pre-existing research outcomes and fostering technologies in a transitional research/discovery-to-application stage; potentially twining academic and industrial partnership in developing a final product, using national assets and technologies, and ultimately helping improve the socioeconomic system by reducing imports.

Research Topics

• Materials applications
  • Innovative sustainable materials for buildings and highways construction.
  • Lightweight materials for industrial applications.
  • High performance materials for energy, agriculture and environment applications.
• Food security and farming technologies
  • Improving agricultural water productivity.
  • Preserving soil health as living ecosystem and regenerative agriculture.
  • Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) technologies.
  • Small farm in agriculture and fisheries.
  • Farming systems and climate change mitigation.
• Energy production, storage and management
  • Green and blue hydrogen generation, storage and transportation.
  • Energy management and optimization in the industrial processes.
  • Waste derived fuels (WDF) for partial substitution of conventional energy resources.
  • Solar photovoltaics and Solar energy for thermal conversion.
  • Renewable energy.
• Information and Communication Technologies:
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications for economic and social development including the study of trust and explainability of AI systems.
  • Big data analytics for the analysis and/or visualization applications of complex data sources; e.g., health and population data, network data, satellite data, including time-series, and spatial-temporal data.
  • Data privacy and security.
  • Electronic health systems, Mobile health, and wearable devices.
  • Robotics applications in health, industries, agriculture, etc.
  • Low-cost computing devices and their applications in education, health, agriculture, telemedicine, etc.
  • IoTs and their applications in energy systems, roads, water and sanitation systems, agriculture, etc.
  • Virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and the metaverse applications
  • ICT for smart and sustainable cities.
  • Using ICT for climate-Smart agriculture to address the interrelated challenges of food security and climate change.
  • Quantum computing and prospective applications.
  • Security in IoT
• Water treatment, resources and usage management
  • New technologies for water desalination.
  • Water recycling for agriculture irrigation, potable water, industrial processes and restoration.
  • Efficient management of water resources.
  • Data mining of Egypt’s groundwater, water quality, water usage, availability and stream flow.
  • Systematic studies of the possible effects of dam building in Nile basin countries on water flows.
• Environment and eco-systems sustainability
  • Carbon capture and carbon dioxide conversion into economical products.
  • New technologies for biomass processing.
  • Improving freshwater and marine aquatic ecosystems.
  • Management and recycling of industrial and urban wastes.

Funding Information

• A grant Not exceeds two Million Egyptian Pounds is awarded to the accepted project in order to cover all costs required to accomplish the project during its entire period
• The period of the project is up to two years

Eligibility Criteria

• An applying research team must be led by a distinguished researcher who is an Egyptian citizen and is affiliated to a research entity (universities, research centers/ institutes. etc.). He/she should also hold a PhD degree and have to show good research experience (a high h-index for the Principal Investigator (PI) is a favorable indication. In addition, other bibliometric indices may be considered). The research team operating within an Egyptian university or a research institution should consist of a Principal Investigator (group leader), plus at least another PhD-qualified researcher and a number of doctoral and master graduate students.
• Industrial experience within the research team would be a positive asset. Industrial partners with expertise relevant to the proffered project should thus be sought whenever they are available in the Egyptian market. Potential industrial partners should be identified to hold a strong record of success in production, as well as an influential impact on economic development

Evaluation Criteria

The funds are awarded based on the following criteria:

• Proposal scientific/technological/innovative quality (shall involve, but not limited to the following: comprehensible writing, added value and novelty, relative scientific expertise of researchers, adequate methodology, budgeting and proper costing, and project management),
• Potential for growing an endogenous knowledge in the proposed field that will result in transforming technologies for industrial applications.
• Introduce an innovative product based on pre-existing knowledge, discoveries and database not restricted under patent or intellectual property legal ship.
• Elevate the burden and reduce the cost of imports for alternative substitutes locally produced through national technologies.
• Upon the eligibility check phase, eligible proposals are technically evaluated for final decision. Evaluation of proposals is carried out by STDF with the assistance of national/international independent experts. STDF staff ensures that the evaluation process is transparent, robust and fair, and in alignment with STDF rules and regulations.

For more information, visit https://stdf.eg/web/grants/open