In 1997, the Academic Book Center at Cairo launched this project and invited thinkers, belonging to the whole spectrum of the Arab and Egyptian cultural rainbow, to participate in its activities.

This outgoing project focused, from its beginning, on discussing all issues concerning science and the common future of humanity in the "glocal" perspective. This approach, adopted by the project, ensures that all issues nowadays have local manifestations and global dimensions, in this strongly interconnected and interdependent world.

By 2010, the project already issued more than 200 titles, written by more than 100 participants, including academicians, thinkers , civil society activists … etc. These publications were arranged in five series: Future Notes, Science Notes, Reviews, Science Literacy Notes, and Egyptian Notes.

A wide range of topics were covered by these publications. These topics include:
- Globalization and the world order
- Politics, Economics and Strategy
- Education and Learning
- Media and Communication
- Management and Business
- Futures' Studies 
- Mind and Behaviour
- Physics Cosmology and Astronomy
- Chemistry
- Biology and Biotechnology
- Medicine and Pharmaceuticals
- Water and Energy
- Electronics and Informatics
- Environment and Pollution
- Nanotechnology
- Philosophy of Science and Technology
- Scientific Studies of Fine Arts
- Science Literacy

Among the main features of the project, we would like to mention the following:
- The project adopts the concept of "the unity of knowledge", and deals with science in its broadest sense, which includes Natural Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities.
- Concerning the future, the project adopts the concept of "the common future" of all human beings, and deals with the future in general as its reference frame, transcending without ignoring all the present obstacles.
- To bridge the gap between cultures, and help in reaching a common understanding between arab and western cultures, based on objective treatments, the project devoted a special series to introduce detailed reviews of recent important western works.
- One of the main "futuristic" features of the project can be represented by the involvement of young generation in its "extended family" of authors. While the involvement of women or Christians was normal, and not intentional, because they are partners in the "intellectual community", having a considerable number of young authors was intentional. We are proud of that (the age difference between the oldest and youngest authors is 62 years!!!).     

Prof. Ahmed  Shawky