Dr. Shireen Kamal Assem. (PHOTO: Agricultural Research Center in Egypt )

By Shireen Kamal Assem

I have heard much good feedback about the  Talented Young Scientist Program (TYSP), which is an international mobility scheme aimed to cultivate future leading scientists. In my opinion, the program showcased a wide variety of case study examples to illustrate the key points in developing the fields of agriculture, health and other research arena, the challenges involved and how they were dealt with.

Research plays a vital role in a knowledge -driven economy and in recent years, innovation has become critical for the global economy, despite the increasing complexity of current economic, environmental and social challenges. Early career scholars play a central role in this new knowledge-driven economy through being the key innovators and creators that provide the intellectual capital needed to grow a robust national research and innovation system.

Additionally, the young scientists of today will be the pool from which the scientific leaders of tomorrow emerge; the science system of the future in any country can only be as strong as its pool of young talent today. As such, understanding precisely how young scientists can succeed in and contribute to the knowledge landscape and what obstacles they encounter in the process across the world is a timely and important focus of concern for countries around the world.

I am informed that the careers of young scientists are increasingly characterized as mobile and international. Young scholars evolve within an increasingly globally competitive context but also in environments strongly shaped by local and national institutions. Their work is crossing borders and boundaries as a result of rapid advances in information technology.

Today, linking research and practice has become one of the basic postulates of both policy-making and a new direction that is important for science (including social sciences). Although there are debates about how this knowledge should be linked in order to achieve the goal, there is no doubt that the policy should be "based on" or "informed by" the data that is collected and analyzed in a methodologically correct way.

As a result of this program, participants were motivated to avoid their scientific degradation and activate the process of raising the level of scientific development to increase the level of financial incentives in regional academic organizations and the introduction of the institute of postdoctoral studies, which allows obtaining a synergetic effect from the professional cooperation of experienced and young professionals.

This program urged the participants to continue engaging in future interactions and networking to produce sustainable solutions and facilitate innovative transitions into the future. Also, it can function as a network-building opportunity for young scientists to solve common problems.

Let me focus on the achievements and relevant cooperation and exchanges. Our young scientists became more identified and scaled up innovative solutions to their research area. This community of young scientists better understands the needs for future research and concerns for world improvement.

In order to maximize the scientific outputs, our young scientists are now eager to spend an inordinate amount of time on administrative tasks directly related to their research. This resulted in producing many of scientific documents that support global development in various fields.

Using the knowledge gained through several research phases, our government has developed evidence-based policy recommendations that highlight the ways in which young scientists can be better supported in their research efforts and career development.

The broad goals of science are to understand natural phenomena and to explain how they may be changing over time. Furthermore, there's so much more for us to discover.

For this reason, I wish to encourage young scientists to maximize cooperation through a wide range of research-based and practical programs as an integral part of the 2030 agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Shireen Kamal Assem serves as vice president of Agricultural Research Center in Egypt.