Prof. Ayman Saleh, Vice President of Ain Shams University for Graduate Studies and Research Affairs and Prof. Dr. Walaa Sheta, CEO of the Science, Technology and Innovation Funding Authority, inaugurated the activities of the introductory symposium organized by Ain Shams University under the chairmanship of Prof. Mahmoud El-Metini, President of the University on the activities of the Science, Technology and Innovation Funding Authority , jointly with the publisher Springer Nature, in the framework of the initiative announced by Prof. Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, to support scientific publishing for Egyptian researchers and scientists.

In his speech, Prof. Ayman Saleh confirmed that this symposium comes within the framework of Ain Shams University's interest in developing scientific research, supporting researchers, and providing them with all information about the opportunities that they can benefit from to push the scientific research system forward.

He also reviewed some of the university's efforts to support scientific research, as it presented the university's experience in establishing scientific departments that include similar departments in different faculties to support communication between them and cooperation in the research field, with the aim of enriching scientific research, and providing the opportunity for researchers to take advantage of all the possibilities in the different faculties.

He also spoke about the Innovation Support Center at Ain Shams University, whose new headquarters will be officially opened within days, referring to linking research with innovation centers and linking project management to the Innovation and Creativity Center in an integration that supports scientific research at the university.

Prof. Ayman Saleh stated that an internal regulation of intellectual property rights is currently being drawn up as a kind of internal organization at the university.

For his part, Prof. Walaa Sheta introduced the activities of the Science, Technology and Innovation Funding Authority, which is one of the most important and largest tributaries of scientific research funding in Egypt, explaining that it implements many programs to support the scientific research system and link it to society and support technological development and industry, and the authority is establishing centers Scientific excellence and research capacity building in various Egyptian universities.

He also highlighted the agreement signed between the Science, Technology and Innovation Financing Authority, the Egyptian Knowledge Bank and the publisher Springer Nature, noting that it is the first free publishing agreement (OA) in the region and the first agreement of this size in the Middle East, and aims to support the scientific research system from By making publication available for free access to researchers in the Arab Republic of Egypt, which results in more academic, scientific and technological development and helps increase the spread and impact of Egyptian research in various fields at the international level, and improves international cooperation between researchers.

He added that this initiative includes all Egyptian universities, research centers and institutes, and scientific cities affiliated with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research or other ministries.

Prof. Dr. Walaa Sheta clarified the terms of the scientific articles that are submitted. The corresponding author must be the first author and the corresponding author, holding Egyptian nationality and working or studying in one of the Egyptian universities or research centers, stressing that the authority supports free scientific publishing, which contributes to Lifting the burden on Egyptian researchers, by financing international publishing expenses in distinguished journals, and this contributes to placing Egyptian scientific institutions in the position they deserve, in addition to encouraging the expansion of citing Egyptian research and opening new horizons for international cooperation.

He described that the initiative to support free scientific publishing includes supporting journals classified Q1, Q2 in addition to Q3 for some time.

Prof. Dr. Walaa Sheta also spoke about the reality of scientific research in Egypt and international publishing, noting that there are 10 Egyptian universities that account for 60% of published Egyptian research, including Ain Shams University, pointing out that the medical field has the largest share in the number of published research He called on researchers to cooperate more and take advantage of the opportunities presented.

The introductory symposium witnessed rich discussions, where the views of researchers were listened to and Prof. Dr. Walaa Sheta answered their inquiries.