CFAs: Egyptian-Spanish Joint Technological Co-operation Program

Deadline: 30 April 2025

The Science, Technology and Innovation Funding Authority is pleased to announce its Egyptian-Spanish Joint Technological Co-operation Program to promote research, development, and innovation in the valued areas of Egypt’s long term competitiveness and development strategy.

Thematic Areas

This Call for proposals is open to collaborative R&D projects in the following areas/sectors:
- Agriculture and Sustainable Food Production
  - Climatic and extra-climatic factors affecting sustainable crop production
  - Improvement of productivity and quality of livestock, aquaculture and fisheries
  - Innovative solutions for combatting emerging infectious livestock diseases
  - Agricultural waste management and biofuel production
  - Advanced trends to improve plant and livestock productivity
  - Food processing, safety, and food security
- Sustainable water management
  - Water management and treatment
  - Water desalination
  - Water sanitation technology
- Affordable & Inclusive Healthcare
  - Cancer and stem cells
  - Chronic diseases
  - Geriatric medicine
- Renewable Energy
  - New trends in renewable energy
  - Advances in energy storage systems
  - Biofuel/biogas production
- Environment sector
  - Sanitation
  - Waste treatment
- Construction
  - Applications of Advanced construction technology and materials
  - Hybrid Concrete Construction (prefabrication plus in-situ)
  - Energy efficiency informatics to construction of residential and commercial buildings
  - Advanced construction management and methods
- Transportation sector
  - Railways infrastructure
  - Railways management
- Tourism and Antiquities sector
  - Tourism industry and management of tourist places
- Strategic Industries sector
  - Pharmaceutical sector
  - Electric car sector
  - Manufacturing industries sector: textile, clothing, paper, wood, petroleum materials, chemicals, plastics, metallurgy and electronics sector
  - Computer Hardware, Machinery and Electrical Appliance sector

Funding Information

STDF will fund each project with 75,000 Euros – 150,000 Euros, to be disbursed in the local currency (Egyptian Pounds) according to the exchange rate at the time of contracting. As per STDF’s regulations, eligible project expenditures will include:
- Salaries for the team (not to exceed 25% or up to 2,000,000 LE, whichever is less)
- Equipment, Expendable supplies, and Materials
- Travel (not to exceed 20% or up to 1,000,000 LE, whichever is less)
- Publication costs and workshops
- Indirect costs [not to exceed 20% of the (Total Direct Cost – Total Equipment Cost) or up to150,000 LE, whichever is less].
Duration of projects: up to 2 years.

Eligibility Criteria

Minimum eligibility criteria:
- The project partners should include at least one qualified researcher from Egypt (Ph.D. holder, affiliated to an Egyptian university or research institution), with an Egyptian industrial partner (with or without R&D units), and one qualified partner from Spain (1 company from Spain with or without an R&D department).
Eligible Spanish Applicants
- Spanish consortia should include at least one company. Participation of research institutes/universities and other organizations is welcome as self-funded participants or subcontractors.
Eligible Egyptian Applicants Eligible
- Egyptian consortia should include a partner (the Egyptian applicant) who is a Ph.D. holder, affiliated to an Egyptian University or research Institution. Collaboration with other entities such as companies, governmental partners, other research centres, technological centres, universities, and other R&D-performing organisations is permitted under STDF’s regulations.
Only projects with an industrial or governmental partner from the Egyptian side will be funded. Consortia with industrial or governmental partners having R&D units will have a higher priority.
Egyptian applicants should submit a business and financial plan to manage the IPR for the Egyptian side. According to Egyptian laws, the IPR belongs to the funding agency (the STDF), unless the industrial or governmental partners share in the project funding. In this case, the IPR for the Egyptian side will be shared between the STDF and the project partners according to their financial contribution.

Evaluation Criteria

The joint projects must meet the general requirements of the funding organizations. The evaluation criteria are the following:
- Crucial Criteria
  - Financial capacity of Partner
  - Formal Agreement between Partners
- Basic Assessment Criteria
  - Partnership and Partners
    - Well balanced partnership
    - Added Value through co-operation
    - Technology Capacity of all Partners
    - Managerial Capacity of all Partners
  - Project Structure
    - Methodology and Planning Approach
    - Milestones and deliverables
    - Cost, financing structure, and Financing commitment of each
    - Partner
- Technology and Innovation
  - Technological Advances
    - Degree of technological maturity and risk
    - Technological Achievements
  - Innovation
    - Degree of innovation
    - Geographical/sector impact
- Market and Competitiveness
  - Market and profitability
    - Market size
    - Market access and risk
    - Return on investment
  - Competitive advantages
    - Strategic importance of the project
    - Enhanced capabilities and visibility

Application Requirements

Egyptian and Spanish co-applicants must elaborate a single project proposal. The Joint Application Form must emphasize how the proposed collaboration adds value, the main technology highlights and innovations, as well as the activities to be developed by the Parties involved, underlining the collaborative work being carried out on each side, their expertise, etc.
A plagiarism check will be applied to all proposals. Accordingly, the proposal must be submitted in a readable PDF format (i.e. not scanned), to facilitate plagiarism checks.
Please note that this Joint Application Form must be sealed and signed by all co-applicants at the end of the document, explicitly indicating the name of the authorized signatory and his/her designation in the organization. Any other relevant information not explicitly mentioned on the form, and that the applicants consider relevant.
In addition to the Joint Application form, co-applicants have to submit the following documents to STDF and CDTI as relevant appendices:
- Consortium Agreement in English whereby the co-applicants should agree upon the ownership, access rights and exploitation of intellectual property generated during the co-operation, to be submitted to CDTI and STDF. The Consortium Agreement needs to be sealed and signed by all co-applicants.
- Any additional specific documents required by STDF and CDTI, as per their respective guidelines and internal rules.
- Additional specific documents required by CDTI:
- In the case of Spanish applicants, for certain specific types of financing it will be necessary to present the documents specified in the regulations applicable to the requested aid.
- Egyptian applicants shall submit applications as per STDF guidelines. Supportive documents should be submitted from the Egyptian PI, including the Acknowledgment Form and Endorsement Letters, Supportive documents should be stamped and signed by the PI’s institution.

For more information, visit STDF.