Egypt ranks first in number of scientists with 86,000 around the world, according to a report released by HRDO center for digital information support.
The General Union of Egyptians abroad revealed that there are 9,750,000 Egyptian expats, 1,883 of them are scientists in very rare nuclear specialties and 42 Egyptian scientists serve as university presidents, along with one minister of scientific research in Canada who holds Egyptian nationality.
Additionally, there are three Egyptians members of the 16-member German Energy Council and at least 3,000 Egyptian scientists in the United States in all the scientific fields.
The report relies on the information and statistics provided by the Union and the statistics center of the United Nations, some research centers in Europe, the United States, hyperlinks of scientists portfolios and the presidents of the Islamic communities abroad.
Despite these facts, the report emphasized that the scientific research in Egypt faces critical challenges that weigh on the findings and its quality.
The report says that Egypt's real crisis is the emigration of enlightened minds where offer them supportive opportunities for more creativity and innovation.
“The Egyptian scientists escape from the routine of bureaucracy and administrative corruption, despite the emergence of some individual initiatives to develope the research, but the national character is absence,” the report says.
Meanwhile, one of the biggest troubles facing the research in Egypt and the Arab countries as well is paying less attention to research and its development, as societal recognition of its pivotal power in boosting countries and economies is absent.
"There are many other troubles include a shortage of funding, administrative corruption, lack of libraries, referencing inaccuracy and difficulty to access information and statistics," the report said.
Additionally the report reported that female researchers face challenges in Egypt, especially when conducting field research, and can find difficulties in funding opportunities and maybe often do not receive the invitations of scientific conferences which could hinder their research quality.
Finally, the report pointed to the necessity of adopting a national strategic plan to develop scientific research and to apply the article 23 in the 2014 Egyptian Constitution, which raises the spendings on scientific research to 1 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
The report also stressed that the government must encourage individual initiatives and send missions abroad to benefit from the international research experiences, and the intellectual abilities of Egyptians scientists abroad to develop Egyptian society.
