Center of Excellence in Agriculture, Egypt (COEA-Egypt) 

The COEA-Egypt program is a USAID-funded cooperative agreement led by Cornell University with the following USA university partners: Purdue University, Michigan State and University of California, Davis. Sathguru Management Consultants are also a partner.

UC Davis led the High Quality Applied Research (HQAR) component of the project, administering a $4 million small grants program, intending to award between 20 to 40 grants by completion of the project. UC Davis’s primary objective in this component is to improve the capacity of early and mid-career Egyptian university scientists to conduct market-oriented applied research. 

In February 2019, the COEA-Egypt program was launched with the objective of creating a dynamic COEA that will respond to changing agriculture and industry needs across a wide array of stakeholders and evolving socio-economic and political contexts.

In partnership with and cooperation from Egypt’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MOHESR) and Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MOALR), COEA initiatives will address stakeholder needs while mirroring priorities set forth in the Sustainable Development Strategy: Egypt Vision 2030 across its three Strategic Dimensions (Economic, Social, and Environment).

The project expects to achieve an integrative COEA that facilitates meaningful partnerships and collaborations between US and Egyptian universities, industry, and government to: 1) develop innovative, transformative, and industry-validated curricula for undergraduate and graduate students; and 2) facilitate readily translatable, solutions-based research that addresses the current and emerging needs of Egyptian agriculture centered on the seven priorities of Egypt’s Sustainable Development Strategy for agriculture. In doing so, the COEA will develop: 1) workforce-ready students to make immediate impact in the Egyptian agricultural economy; 2) research products that transform agricultural businesses and livelihoods; and 3) a sustainable, replicable, and inclusive model highly valued and financially supported by a wide range of stakeholders throughout Egypt.