Egypt, EU launch Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025 in Cairo - Economy
The European Union (EU) delegation to Egypt, in collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, held the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025 launch event in Cairo on Wednesday.
The event marked a key milestone in strengthening Egypt-EU cooperation in research and innovation.
Over 150 participants attended the launch, including Egyptian academics, researchers, innovators, and officials from the Ministries of Higher Education and Foreign Affairs.
Ambassador Angelina Eichhorst, head of the EU delegation to Egypt, and Mohamed Ayman Ashour, minister of higher education and scientific research, inaugurated the event.
The day aimed to raise awareness about new opportunities for Egyptian entities under Horizon Europe, the EU's flagship research and innovation programme with a 95.5 billion euro budget for 2021–2027.
Discussions focused on enhancing collaboration, funding access, and Egypt's growing role in the European research and innovation ecosystem.
The event follows the initialling of the Horizon Europe Association Agreement between Egypt and the EU on 10 April, paving the way for Egypt's formal association.
While the agreement is expected to be signed by November 2025, transitional arrangements are already in place.
As of 10 April, Egyptian institutions are eligible to participate in Horizon Europe calls under the 2025 budget and enjoy the same rights as entities from associated countries.
'This year marks two decades of EU-Egypt science and technology cooperation,' said Ambassador Eichhorst.
'Egypt's association with Horizon Europe will usher in a new era, offering not just funding, but also a voice in shaping research priorities, leading international consortia, and opening doors for youth, researchers, and entrepreneurs to innovate and collaborate globally,' she added.
Minister Ashour echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the importance of international collaboration to advance Egypt's scientific and technological capabilities.
He noted that the partnership with Horizon Europe will help integrate Egypt's research landscape with global networks, fostering knowledge exchange and innovation-led growth.
Horizon Europe represents the EU's highest level of international scientific collaboration, offering non-EU countries full participation in research activities.
Through this association, Egyptian researchers and institutions will gain access to cutting-edge European research infrastructures and cross-border scientific partnerships spanning academia, industry, and civil society.
The association is expected to deepen scientific ties between Egypt and the EU, support Egypt's national innovation agenda, and contribute to regional and global research initiatives.
On Wednesday, the two sides concluded the negotiations to extend the Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (PRIMA), a strategic programme focused on sustainable water and food systems.
Egypt and the EU signed the Joint Declaration on the Strategic and Comprehensive Partnership in Cairo in March.
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Growing up in the 1990s, when military operations against alleged armed groups were frequent and security forces would often barge into homes, day or night, Humtsoe wanted nothing to do with India. At one point, he stopped speaking Nagamese – a bridge dialect among the state's 16 tribes and a creole version of the Indian language, Assamese. But he grew disillusioned with the political solution rooted in separatism that armed groups were seeking. And the irony of the state's dependence on funds from New Delhi hit the now 39-year-old. Coffee became his own path to self-determination. 'From 2016 onwards, I was more of, 'How can I inspire India?'' The quality challenge Ngullie of the LRD insists that the coffee revolution brewing in Nagaland is also helping the state preserve its forests. 'We don't do land clearing,' he said, in essence suggesting that coffee was helping the state's agriculture transition from the traditional slash-and-burn techniques to agroforestry. 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Walling makes less than 200,000 rupees per annum (roughly $2,300) and like most farmers, is still engaged in jhum cultivation, the traditional slash-and-burn method of farming practised by Indigenous tribes in northeastern hills. With erratic weather patterns and decreasing soil fertility in recent decades, intensified land use in jhum cultivation has been known to lead to further environmental degradation and greenhouse gas emissions, exacerbating climate change. 'Trees are drying up and so is the mountain spring water,' Walling told Al Jazeera, pointing at the evergreen woods where spring leaves were already wilting in March, well before the formal arrival of summer. 'Infestation is also a major issue and we don't use even organic fertilisers because we are scared of spoiling our land,' he added. 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And while the Nagaland government maintains that exports have been steadily growing, entrepreneurs tell a different story. Vivito Yeptho, who co-owns Nagaland Coffee and became the state's first certified barista in 2018, said that their last export of 15 metric tonnes (MT) was in 2019, to South Africa. Still, there are other wins to boast of. In 2024, the state registered its highest-ever production at 48 MT, per state department officials. Yeptho said Nagaland Coffee alone supplies 40 cafes across India, of which 12 are in the Northeast region. And Naga coffee is already making waves internationally, winning silver at the Aurora International Taste Challenge in South Africa in 2022 and then gold in 2023. 'To aim for export, we need to be at least producing 80-100 MT every year,' Yeptho told Al Jazeera. But before aiming for mass production, entrepreneurs said they still have a long way to go in improving the quality of beans and their post-harvest processing. With a washing mill and a curing unit in his farm, where he grows both Arabica and Robusta varieties, Yanthan's Lithanro brand is the only farm-to-cup institution in the state. He believes farmers need to focus on better maintenance of their plantations, to begin with. 'Even today, the attitude is that the plants don't need to be tended to during the summers and monsoon season before harvest (which starts by November),' Yanthan told Al Jazeera. 'But the trees need to be constantly pruned to keep them within a certain height, weeding has to be done and the stems need to be maintained as well.' Even as these challenges ground Naga farmers and entrepreneurs in reality, their dreams are soaring. Humtsoe hopes for speciality coffee from Nagaland to soon be GI tagged, like varieties from Coorg, Chikmagalur, Araku Valley and Wayanad in southern India. He wants good coffee from India to be associated with Nagas, not just Nagaland, he said. 'People of the land must become the brand'.
