FEMIA MEMBERS

Nizar Al-Halasah is an Innovation Consultant at UN ESCWA Technology Centre through memorandum of agreement between UN ESCWA and the Royal Scientific Society of Jordan since May 1, 2011. He is an experienced engineer with a proven track record in economic development and SMEs support, and help in creating entrepreneurial enterprises: expertise in innovation management, intellectual property, commercialization, and business incubation. He has more than 20 years of professional experience in establishing entrepreneurial links between research institutions and industry and relevant programs. He has more than 8 years of experience in the field of development and support of innovation of startup projects and SMEs, including innovation policy, innovative industrial processes and their applications in the industrial environments. He published papers in international journals and conferences in the areas of: Innovation, intellectual Property, Water Resources. He received his M.sc. and B. Sc. in Civil Engineering from University of Jordan.

Rym Ayadi holds a PhD in economics from the Université Paris Dauphine and her fields of expertise include among others financial development and economic growth, crisis management, competition and consumer policy, risk management, European financial consolidation & efficiency and socio-economic and financial markets developments in the Middle East, GCC and Africa.  She is professor at HEC Montreal (Canada) and expert member of several high-level expert groups in the European Commission and European regulatory authorities, external advisor to international assemblies, including the European Parliament and the Assembly of the Mediterranean, and invited expert in international organisations. She is Vice President of the European Financial Inclusion Network (EFIN) and President of the Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association (EMEA) established to contribute to the future of political and socio-economic model in the South Mediterranean region post Arab Spring. She is author of several books and scholarly articles and member of a number of editorial boards. Dr. Ayadi was a Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Financial Institutions Unit at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels.

Latifa Belarbi is a consultant at the World Bank working for the Knowledge Economy & innovation and entrepreneurship programs. She joined the CMI from the European Investment Bank (Luxembourg) where she worked at the Projects Directorate on a monitoring project of technical assistance to technopoles and business angels networks in MENA, as well as on the ( IT1) program on financing innovation in the Mediterranean. She also worked in Algiers, Milan and Rome with the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade. Latifa Belarbi holds a M.Sc in Internationalization and Communication of Productive Systems in the Mediterranean and graduated from HEC.

Muna Bur is Secretary General of FEMIA and a member of the program team at the Cairo-based Danish Egyptian Dialogue Institute, and manages a portfolio of partnership projects, exchanges and initiatives that address an over-arching focus on gender, arts and culture in cross-cultural contexts. Bur holds a bachelor’s degree in cultural studies from McGill University, Canada and a master’s in comparative literature from the American University in Cairo, where her research focused on exploring notions of flânerie in selected Arab women’s writing and investigating the literary rapport between them and the cities they inhabit (namely Cairo, Khartoum and Beirut). She has also studied and worked part-time at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute for Women’s Studies at Concordia University, Montréal. Prior to joining DEDI, Bur coordinated the INTACT Network (International Network to Analyze, Communicate and Transform the Campaign Against FGC/M) at Population Council’s West Asia North Africa regional office in Cairo, and actively engaged in a number of independent art projects related to identity politics, multiculturalism and dialogue. Of Sudanese/Russian origins, Bur has resided in Cairo since 2003.

Refaat Chaabouni has a PhD, Université Claude Bernard (Lyon I) and post-doctorate in Chemistry, University of California, Santa Cruz. He served as the Minister of Higher Education from February to December 2011 (Government of Béji Caïd Essebsi) and was the Secretary of State for Higher Education in charge of Scientific Research from 15 January 2010 to 27 February 2011. Refaat Chaabouni has held the positions of Professor at the National Engineering School of Tunis; Director of prospective, planning and evaluation at the Secretariat of State for Scientific Research and Technology; and Research Director at CNRS in Toulouse (France). He is an expert consultant at the Tunisian Institute for Strategic Studies in charge of science and technology. Refaat Chaabouni has been awarded the Officer of the Tunisian Order of the Republic Commander in the National Order of Merit – Education.

Coming soon. 

Ahmad Dallal is provost of the American University of Beirut and professor of history in its Department of History and Archaeology. He joined AUB in the summer of 2009 from Georgetown University in Washington, DC, where he served as the chair of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies. His previous teaching appointments were at Stanford University (2000-03), Yale University (1994-2000), and Smith College (1990-94). Dr. Dallal’s scholarship focuses on the history of science, Islamic revivalist thought, and Islamic law. His most recent publication, Islam, Science, and the Challenge of History, which traces the historical delineations between scientific knowledge and religious authority in Muslim societies, is based on the Dwight H. Terry lectures that he delivered at Yale University in February 2008. He received his BE (1980) from AUB’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, and his PhD (1990) in Islamic Studies from the Department of Middle East Languages and Cultures at Columbia University in 1990.

Hanan Dowidar is a development expert having worked for international organisations, government, educational and civil society associations. Ms. Dowidar started her career at the Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation before joining the World Bank working both in Washington DC (USA) and Cairo (Egypt) offices. She then consulted for the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva (Switzerland). Working as Deputy Director of the EU-funded Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Programme in Egypt she gained first-hand experience on science and innovation policies and practice. She is currently Vice President of the Forum for Euro-Mediterranean Innovation in Action (FEMIA), and Senior Advisor to 1001 Inventions, an award-winning UK-based organisation that creates global educational campaigns. Ms. Dowidar is passionate about communicating science for development, where she introduced several initiatives in Egypt along the RDI Programme and as advisor to the President of the American University in Cairo on informal science education.

Abdelamid El-Zoheiry is a Professor of Medicine at Cairo University. He acquired extensive experience in Education and Research management through developing and managing numerous international partnerships and projects with Euro-Mediterranean organizations in Education, Research and Innovation. In 2006, he was seconded to the Egyptian Ministry of Scientific Research as the Senior Policy Advisor for International Cooperation and the Executive Director of the Research Development and Innovation Programme. In September 2012 he was appointed as the Founding President of Heliopolis University in Cairo. He represents Egypt in several regional/international senior officials policy committees and councils, including the Monitoring Committee for the Euro-Mediterranean Cooperation in Research and Innovation (MoCo).

Hany Mahfouz Helal served as the Egyptian Minister of Higher Education and State Minister for Scientific Research and the Cultural and Scientific Chancellor in the Egyptian embassy in Paris. Helal worked as professor in the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University (1993), and the Head of Singor University, Alexandria (October 2004). He was as an expert in Earth Sciences Programs of the UNESCO’s regional office in Cairo (1993), and the UNESCO consultant of International Laboratory for Scantron, Jordan (2002). Helal graduated from the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University with a B.Sc. in Engineering (with honors) in 1974, and he holds a PhD degree in Earth Sciences (Rock Mechanics and Engineering).

Yasemin Koc has over 10 years of professional experience in science, technology and innovation analysis in the academic and public sector. She has extensive international field experience in capacity strengthening, public outreach (science communication), policy formulation, program development and management, monitoring and evaluation in science, technology and innovation projects. In addition she has a strong track record science policy analysis in European, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries (with focus on Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE). Having lead operational merger processes in the banking sector (JP Morgan Chase), Dr Yasemin Koc joined the British Council as advisor for science communication and innovation. Outstanding relationship building, partnership development and income generation have been her strongest assets in this role.  Drawing on her deep expertise in leading a Nanotechnology research team (20 peers) at Imperial College, Yasemin has supported and helped lead projects focusing on new technologies in developing countries. Recent assignments have included a secondment to the Gulf Region (Qatar), tasked to analyze the research landscape in Gulf countries.  In addition to monitoring, evaluation and drawing up recommendations, Yasemin is also focused on the identification of new partnerships and projects.

Špela Majcen graduated in European Affairs at the Faculty of Social Sciences (Ljubljana, Slovenia) and obtained a MA degree in International Relations and Diplomacy of the EU from the College of Europe (Bruges, Belgium), where she specialized in EU enlargement and neighbourhood policies. Ms. Majcen is junior expert at FEMIA and is engaged in two bilateral projects (with Egypt and Tunisia), where her tasks include preparation of reports on STI policies, analysis of these policies and suggestions for recommendations, in addition to dissemination activities and support to the management of the project. She has previously worked as Assistant to a Member of the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg, in particular in the fields of research and innovation policy, energy policy, EU-Turkey and EU-USA relations. She previously managed a Jean Monnet project EU-PIKA aimed at communicating EU policies to citizens and underwent an internship at the European Commission DG Research and Innovation (Social Sciences and Humanities Unit).

Fouad Mrad joined the United Nations in December 2009 and is currently the executive director of ESCWA regional center for technology in Amman, Jordan. Dr. Fouad leads the regional support center for the consecration of science, technology, and innovation in social and economic development. He received his Ph.D. and Masters degree in electrical engineering from the Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, and a BSc in electrical and computer engineering from State University of New York, Buffalo. Dr. Mrad was a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the American University of Beirut from 1993 to 2009. Prior to his academic post in Beirut, he worked for IBM in the division of magnetic storage in Rochester, Minnesota, USA from1990 to 1993. Dr. Mrad consulted in technological innovation for several local and international organizations, including the TV program “Stars of Science”, sponsored by the Qatar Foundation, the Industrial Research Institute in Lebanon, the Euro-Lebanese Center for Industrial Modernization, Indevco. the Lebanese Minister of Industry, Modern Electronic Industries Co, and the National Council for Scientific Research in Lebanon. He authored several publications on various specialized fields in professional journals and contributed to international conferences on manufacturing, industrial equipment and robotics. He co-authored the book “Applied Mechatronics” with Oxford University Press, New York.

Aurélie Pancera holds three Master degrees in European and International Law, Political Science and Urban Development and has more than nine years of experience in the field of international cooperation, public policies and institutional capacity building, including more than 6 years of experience working in the European Commission. She is specialized in knowledge economy related fields, supporting RDI policy dialogue, R&D capacity building for universities and research centres, institutional networking at national, regional and international levels to improve the international participation in the European Research Area (ERA), FP7, DEVCO and other relevant EU funding programmes (application procedures, proposal drafting, etc). She has been working in these fields in Mexico and Latin America over more than four years and a half (since end 2004). Then she has been applying her expertise since mid 2009 in the ENP, working with Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. She has recently been certified as professional coach for individual professional development and support to organisation development.

Kyriaki Papageorgiou has a Ph.D. in Social and Cultural Anthropology with an emphasis in Science and Technology Studies. Her academic work has addressed questions of science in society and science policy. Papageorgiou has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Egypt and she has been the recipient of various research grants, such as the US National Science Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. From October 2008 until January 2012, Papageorgiou has worked as the Coordinator for Science, Research and Innovation at the Delegation of the European Union to Egypt where she observed, monitored and reported on research and innovation policies and activities across the Southern Mediterranean region.

Andrea Ricci received his engineering degree from Ecole Centrale (Paris, France) in 1977. He is Vice President of ISIS – Institute of Studies for the Integration of Systems, an independent research and consultancy partnership based in Rome, Italy, which he joined in 1982 after 5 years with the French think tank GAPSET, where he worked as analyst in the field of corporate and public innovation strategies. Over his years with ISIS, Andrea has led major EU research efforts and forward looking studies in the fields of Sustainability Policy analysis and impact assessment, technology assessment and scenario building. Andrea is currently coordinating the FLAGSHIP project (Forward Looking Analysis of Grand Societal Challenges and Innovative Policies, FP7), and recently coordinated the PASHMINA project (FP7) on paradigm shifts. Andrea repeatedly served as advisor and evaluator (both ex ante and ex post) of research projects and studies for the European Commission, also contributing to the ex post evaluation of several EU RTD Programmes (International Cooperation, Environment, Bioeconomy). He recently served as the overall Rapporteur of the EC Working Group “Global Europe 2030 – 2050”, devising and building worldwide scenarios at 2050.