A group of 44 science PhD students will be travelling to the UK to study this academic year with scholarships from the Newton-Mosharafa Fund, the largest bilateral science programme in Egypt, according to a statement by the British embassy in Cairo. The PhD candidates met on Thursday with the British ambassador to Egypt John Casson. The Newton-Mosharafa PhD scholarship programme is delivered by the British Council and financed by the UK's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. “Since its establishment in 2014, the Newton-Mosharafa partnership has focused on empowering Egyptian scientists and providing them with state-of-the-art research facilities to transfer their ideas into commercial projects that can benefit Egypt,” Casson said in the statement. Since 2014 the fund has supported 172 PhD students from Egypt. This year's batch include 23 women. The scholars are affiliated with institutions from across Egypt, hailing from Cairo, Ain Shams, Sohag, Mansoura, Port Said, the Nile Delta, Suez and Upper Egypt. Some of those awarded will spend a year carrying out research at a British higher education institution as part of a PhD at an Egyptian university, while others will complete a full three-year doctorate at a British institution. The focus of the programme is to advance the capacity of the Egyptian science sector, to increase the amount of quality scientific research and innovation being carried out in Egypt, and to help mitigate the negative effects of the social and economic challenges faced by Egypt, through research and innovation.