The Ministers of Education and Higher Education witness the closing ceremony of the pioneering program "Interdisciplinary Research Excellence"

The Minister of Education and Technical Education, Dr. Tarek Shawky, and the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, witnessed the closing ceremony of the activities of the pioneering program "Interdisciplinary Research Excellence: Twenty-first Century Skills: Collected Objectives for Sustainable Development" in light of Egypt's 2030 Strategy, in cooperation with the Egyptian Knowledge Bank It is a comprehensive training program for capacity-building and promotion of interdisciplinary scientific research in Egyptian universities, which was implemented from September to December 2020.

The program aims to provide scientific content, practical discussions and applications in realistic models, combining individual and group work, and evaluating all work submitted by those enrolled in the program through specific measures of the results of cognitive and practical skills and the extent of effective participation. To develop core competencies for interdisciplinary research based on economic growth objectives, government policies, feedback from Egyptian stakeholders, and advice from international experts.

Dr. Tariq Shawky, Minister of Education and Technical Education, expressed his happiness with the multidisciplinary research excellence program, noting that the Knowledge Bank cooperates with many institutions, including the armed forces and ministries such as higher education, health, military production and housing, and has provided many training programs.

Dr. Tariq Shawky added: “I am happy with these moments that reflect our efforts. The knowledge bank is a huge library that provides education and higher education with a lot of valuable research and information, and what many do not know. The knowledge bank is not a repository of books and electronic resources only, but rather a service institution that is in line with Egypt's vision for sustainable development 2030. It provides solutions in education. "

He pointed out that the role played by the Egyptian Knowledge Bank is not only in supporting the new education system through learning platforms, but also in supporting users and researchers in universities and research centers nationwide, adding that the Knowledge Bank cooperates with many partners to enrich scientific research and accelerate The wheel of development in Egypt.

Dr. Tariq Shawky congratulated the researchers who passed this program, saying: “We appreciate your remarkable efforts and the country is proud of the achievements you have made. We hope to continue and expand the multidisciplinary research excellence program for the year 2021, and to provide more to support higher education and scientific research in areas related to excellence in Teaching, the arrangement of universities and libraries commensurate with the twenty-first century, and supercomputing, indicating that the future looks bright with cooperation between us as a team, which I am very happy with.

In his speech, Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar thanked the Knowledge Bank for the efforts made in the field of knowledge to provide educational services to students and researchers at various educational levels, whether in university or pre-university education, indicating that the pioneering program of multidisciplinary research excellence is one of the fruits of the success of cooperation between the Ministry And the Egyptian Knowledge Bank in cooperation with the Knowledge E Foundation, which we celebrate today’s graduation of the first batch of 33 researchers from 14 Egyptian universities.

The Minister of Higher Education emphasized that there is worldwide interest in the multiplicity of disciplines that deal with societal challenges such as public health, food security, global warming, and others, explaining that the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the importance of using these methods in facing various difficult issues.

Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar added that recent scientific research confirms that the university in the future is multidisciplinary, indicating that there are many universities that offer multidisciplinary degrees in various scientific fields, through the creation of new interdisciplinary courses in nanosciences or mathematical biological sciences specializations. And others, pointing out that in many cases, interdisciplinarity begins at the graduate level in highly relevant scientific fields such as the humanities, liberal arts or sciences, and often does not extend beyond these disciplines.

Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar emphasized that Egyptian universities need to activate the idea of ​​interdisciplinary research excellence in their academic programs and research directions, so that the vision of educational institutions that want to promote the idea of ​​interdisciplinary research excellence includes a systematic institutional reform that facilitates interdisciplinary research and education, pointing out that There are more than 100 postgraduate programs in multi-disciplinary Egyptian universities, with the aim of expanding the scope of university studies.

The Minister of Higher Education added that the ministry aims, through the establishment of new international and private universities, to keep pace with multidisciplinary programs and ideas.

In the conclusion of his speech, Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar pointed out the need for scientific departments, educational programs and research centers to be ready to move towards multidisciplinary research excellence as a new direction, indicating that we need to make the right choices and follow the path of intellectual cooperation by working together.

The events also included the announcement of the 2021 multidisciplinary program, which defines three sub-programs: basic training for new groups of researchers, educational design to include multidisciplinary research in universities, and increasing the impact of the programs by expanding communication networks and relationships with industry, society, policy makers and targeted projects.

At the end of the ceremony, certificates were awarded for the first group of the "Interdisciplinary Research Excellence" program, which is an innovative training cooperation between the Egyptian Knowledge Bank and Knowledge E.

The activities of the celebration were attended by representatives of Knowledge E, who are: Professor Cameron Cardin, President of the Foundation, Dr. Samantha Miles, Head of the Foundation’s Education Department, Karen Anderson in the Foundation’s Education Department, and a number of university presidents, and Dr. Muhammad Lotif, Secretary of the Supreme Council of Universities, and from the Ministry of Higher Education, Dr. Ayman Ashour, Deputy Minister for University Affairs, Dr. Yasser Rifaat, Deputy Minister for Scientific Research Affairs, in addition to a number of representatives of the Knowledge Bank, and researchers participating in the pilot program.