Under the patronage of Dr. Ayman Ashour, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research announced the launch of the Egyptian Universities Hackathon, the Innovation Competition, entitled (Climate Change: “Creativity for Continuity”), for Egyptian university youth, and this competition comes in light of the growing global interest in the issue of Climate change, which is one of the most urgent international issues due to its remarkable and increasing impact on all countries in various aspects of daily life, as well as Egypt’s participation in the international community in emphasizing the importance of the issue of climate change, and seeking to play a positive and active role to face the various consequences of it, through Egypt’s hosting of the session The 27th Climate Conference (COP 27) in Sharm El-Sheikh from 7 to 12 November 2022.

Dr.Adel Abdel Ghaffar, Media Adviser and Official Spokesperson for the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, said that the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research’s launch of the Innovation Competition (Climate Change: “Creativity for Continuity”), for Egyptian university youth, comes within the framework of the political leadership’s directives to raise society’s awareness of all vital issues and discover and nurture talents. The competition aims to provide real opportunities for young generations of university students to play an active role in facing the climate change crisis.

and that is through:

• Increasing the awareness of future generations about climate changes and their impact on various issues in our lives.

• Stimulating innovative ideas to address climate change issues facing the local and global environment.

• Exploiting students' technical capabilities to develop innovative ideas of importance to the Egyptian state.

• Coordination and integration of efforts from both the public and private sectors to face the urgent challenges caused by climate change.

• Participate in identifying and studying the real and urgent challenges caused by climate change in Egypt.

The official spokesperson added that the competition targets undergraduate students from all public, and private Egyptian universities, and does not include graduate students or graduates. corresponding to September 25, 2022, provided that the final qualifiers for the competition will be on Thursday, September 29, 2022, (with the possibility of amending some deadlines according to the course of the competition).

The competition is conducted in two phases, the first within each university independently and aims to select one team with only one multi-disciplinary project to participate in the second phase (finalists) of the competition, and each university will present only one project before the judging committees to select winning teams.

The official spokesperson stated that 6 winning teams will be selected, so that there will be 3 positions for public universities, two for private universities, and one for other universities, and the prizes are determined as follows:

First prize: 100,000 pounds.

• Second prize: 80,000 pounds.

• Third prize: 60,000 pounds.

• Fourth Prize: 40,000 EGP

• Fifth Prize: 30,000 pounds.

• Sixth Prize: 25000 EGP

An official point of contact will be identified from each university that will be responsible for raising the project submitted by the university in the competition.

To find out the conditions and requirements for participating in the competition or to learn about the mechanisms of sponsoring the competition, please visit the official website of the competition: hack4climate.mohesr.gov.eg

And to contact: Hack4climate@mohesr.gov.eg.