Morocco Allocates $20 Million to Attract Expatriate Talent for Research and Innovation

It was Azzedine El Midaoui, the Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation, who officially announced the news on Tuesday before the Chamber of Advisors. For the first time, the National Program for Support to Research, Development and Innovation (PNARDI) for the period 2025-2028 will dedicate 200 million dirhams to mobilizing Moroccans around the world.

The clearly stated objective is to create incentive mechanisms to attract these experts and encourage them not only to contribute from a distance, but also to return and become directly involved in national universities and research centers. According to the minister, this is about implementing King Mohammed VI’s directives aimed at mobilizing all national skills and thus promoting exchanges of knowledge and expertise to nurture the Moroccan innovation ecosystem.

This initiative for the diaspora is part of a much larger PNARDI program, with an impressive total budget of one billion dirhams. A sum which, Mr. El Midaoui specified, represents double all the funding allocated to the sector over the last thirty years, marking a willingness to give a serious boost. This ambitious plan, the result of a partnership with the OCP Foundation, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) and the National Center for Scientific and Technical Research (CNRST), aims for a qualitative leap for Moroccan research, focusing it on national priorities such as water, health, food security, renewable energies, and human and social sciences.

This program is part of the 2015-2030 strategic vision and the framework law on education and research. To ensure its success and wide participation, the ministry indicated that accompanying measures are planned, notably opening the doors of PNARDI to all public and private components of the kingdom’s research and innovation system.