Dr. Mona Ahmed Elazony from NARSS - National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences in Egypt - was one of the 28 Technology Transfer Offices representatives from the Mediterranean Partner Countries who attended the training course held between December 2021 and January 2022.

What is your role in your organization?

I work as a specialist in strategic studies in the Division of Scientific Training and Continuing Studies at the National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences in Egypt. I am part of the research and development team and work on the implementation of innovation projects.  I also work as Director of the Marketing Office of the Technology Transfer and Marketing Office at the Authority and as a media advisor

What are your research/business main activities/interests?

We design and develop research projects in different fields and a startup company has been established for the authority’s fields of work.

Why have you decided to attend this NEX-LABS training course and what are the main takeaways that you have learned?

I decided to attend the training course to benefit from the course to get tools on how to motivate researchers to prepare plans for establishing startup companies. Thanks to this course I could learn how to set up a business model for startups.

How do you intend to transfer this knowledge in your work?

A series of workshops will be prepared within my organization to implement the training course among the researchers at NARSS to encourage the development of new startups.

The NEX-LABS project aims to contribute to the creation of a sustainable and resilient agro-food sector based on NEXUS driven Open Living Labs (NDOLL) approach, thus strengthening technology transfer, cooperation between industry-academia, increasing commercialization opportunities and innovation-driven growth. What are your suggestion to make the NEX-LABS project’s impacts successful?

My suggestion for NEX-LABS project is to run additional series of these trainings to help the community become more and more familiar with all aspects related to research innovation and how to turn these innovative ideas into business opportunities.