Sekem Develoment Foundation - SEKEM

SEKEM Development Foundation (SDF) is a private non-profit non-governmental organisation founded in 1984. In 2003, SEKEM established Heliopolis Academy for Sustainable Development (HA) to improve Egypt's capacity to conduct, publish and disseminate relevant social and scientific demand driven research in areas related to sustainable development, such as medicine, phyto-pharmaceutical industry, biodynamic/ organic agriculture, food technology and social sciences. Heliopolis Academy is the research centre of the Foundation serving as a hub where innovative; business oriented, applied researches are undertaken. The Academy has a specialized department and laboratory in each of these disciplines plus a strong network of national and international partners.

At present, the Academy employed 33 full-time employees and 13 parttime researchers, with whom it had 7 ongoing research projects in different themes. The Academy succeeded in attracting national and international professionals from different fields to form consortia that work in research teams to develop more than 40 RTD proposals annually submitted under different funding agencies and framework programs, i.e. FP7 as well as national funds, i.e. STDF and RDI. HA established a strong IP management policy that reflects the integrity of its research environment and protects the property rights of researchers, the partners and the institution. Previous related projects:

  • EEIF-RDI Programme (2008): INNOVA Project: Heliopolis Academy Innovation Award;
  • FP7 (2009): NAAN: Natural Anti- Hypertensive and Anti- Diabetic Drugs;
  • RCE Cairo Office: a network of Companies, Academia, NGOs and GOs within the 61 worldwide RCEs;
  • SDF and its affiliated entities are cooperating with many EU and regional universities in more than 7 TEMPUS (EU), 1 STDF (National), 2 Erasmus Mundus (EU), 7 IMC (National), 2 EuropeAID (EU).