• Announcement of the 2007/2008 Research Grants winners
• BA/CSSP Research Grants 2009 Announcement
• The First BA Regional Workshop on the Epidemiology of Diabetes & Other Non-Communicable Diseases
• Regional Biosecurity Workshop
• COMSTECH-TWAS: Joint Research Grants Programme for Young Scientists in OIC Countries
• The Science Supercourse Project

  Announcement of the 2007/2008 Research Grants winners

 On 23 October 2008, the CSSP celebrated the announcement of the 25 top listed candidates of the Research Grants 2007/2008 . The celebration was inaugurated by Dr. Mohamed El-Faham, Director of the CSSP.

During the celebration Dr. Mohamed El-Faham stated that more than 243 young Egyptian postdoctoral researchers in the fields of Agricultural Sciences, Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics, Chemistry, Engineering Sciences & Technologies, Earth Sciences, Information Technology, Mathematics, Medical Sciences and Physics & Astronomy participated in this year’s competition. Then the top listed candidates were announced to enter the final phase of the competition.

The top listed candidates were then interviewed and seven winners were selected.

Research Grants 2007/2008 winners are:

 This program serves as a step towards scientific and research progress, in order to offer young Egyptian postdoctoral researchers the chance to transform their theories into reality. The grants are completely financed by the BA.

                                                                                                        Research Grants Program   

 for young Egyptian postdoctoral researchers

·    · Agricultural Sciences	· Earth Sciences
·    · Biology	· Information Technology
·    · Biochemistry and Biophysics	· Mathematics
·    · Chemistry	· Medical Sciences
·    · Engineering Sciences and Technologies	· Physics and Astronomy
·    · Pre-University Education

  Eligibility and Deadlines:

1.  Egyptian scholars who have earned their PhD within the past five years (following      December 2003).
2. Applicants must hold a current position at a public/private academic or research institution in Egypt, and the research must be conducted in Egypt.
3. Currently engaged or can arrange to work on a joint research project with foreign counterpart(s) at a university or research center abroad.
4. Applicants must not exceed 35 years of age by January 2009.
5. Grant applications must be submitted online before 30 April 2009.
6. Have a valid Local TOEFL certificate with a minimum score of 500.

More information and application requirements are available at: http://www.bibalex.org/cssp2009

For more information contact Ms. Marwa Abdelrassoul at:

 The First BA Regional Workshop on the Epidemiology of Diabetes & Other Non-Communicable Diseases

On 6-13 January 2009 The First BA Regional Workshop on the Epidemiology of Diabetes & Other Non-Communicable Diseases took place at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. The workshop was a joint event between the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) and the WHO Collaborating Centre in Pittsburgh, supported by the World Diabetes Foundation. The event was part of a bigger project at the BA - The Diabetes Supercourse for the MENA Region.

This workshop aimed to assist young scientists, researchers and health care professionals and to provide them with the tools that will in turn, aid them in their various fields to find innovative new strategies for the prevention and control of many non-communicable diseases

 For more information, please visit the website
http://www.bibalex.org/diabetesSupercourse/edncd/home/staticpage.aspx

 Regional Biosecurity Workshop

The Regional Biosecurity workshop took place at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) on 23-24 February and was co-organized by the BA and the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM). It engaged a broad range of government, scientific, public health, academic, international security, and industry experts from the Middle East and North Africa to address the issue of the dual-use of biotechnology research.

 It's two primary goals were to:

1) Help raise awareness among key stakeholders about the dual-use issue.

2) Obtain feedback on the proposals that have been developed for managing the most consequential areas of dual-use research, whether government, academic or industry-sponsored.

 25 participants from regional and international organizations, government, science and health ministries, research institutions, academia and industry attended the workshop including Ambassador Nabil Fahmy; Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador Hagar Islambouli; Head of Foreign Relations Sector, Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

Dr. Ismail Sergaeldin, Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, delivered the keynote address entitled "Reflections on Terrorism and Bioterrorism".

COMSTECH-TWAS: Joint Research Grants Programme for Young Scientists in OIC Countries

              

The COMSTECH-TWAS Joint Research Grants Programme is established in response to the needs of promising young researchers in OIC countries, particularly those attached to institutions that lack appropriate research facilities.

Under this scheme, individual researchers in OIC countries working in science and technology are awarded grants to enable them to purchase the research facilities they need to enhance their productivity.

The specific aims of the programme are to encourage the pursuit of scientific excellence in OIC countries by identifying and supporting the best young scientists in these countries; to reinforce and promote scientific research and to strengthen the endogenous capacity in science and technology; to counteract the brain drain and reduce the exodus of scientific talent from the OIC countries.

 For more information and for the application form click here

 Deadline for Application: 31 March 2009

The Science SuperCourse Project  

The Science SuperCourse Project intends to build a knowledge network in four main scientific domains namely: Medicine, Engineering, Environment and Agriculture. This is to be achieved through a collection of 100,000 golden PowerPoint lectures from scientists worldwide and making them accessible via the Internet, to allow an international portal of organized coherent knowledge and networking communities of practice from all around the globe.

Since the access to refined scientific literature in developing countries is quite limited, the Science SuperCourse’s primary goal is to provide the most updated, scientific lectures for free online, to assist educators and scholars from developing countries.

The project was launched on 5-6 January 2009 at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina  where eminent leading experts were invited to focus on the importance of internet based knowledge and how  it can be beneficial to these four scientific domains. 

 The 4 main investigators in this project are: