Stanford Study: 23 Moroccan Scientists Rank Among World’s Top 2% of Researchers

Following the first list identifying 23 Moroccans, the ranking includes a second list taking into account the researchers’ entire careers as of the end of 2019. In this second category composed of 159,682 names, only eight Moroccans, including Moustapha Bousmina from the Euromed University of Fez, Fouad Bentiss from the University of El Jadida, Ahmed Ennaoui from IRESEN, Mounir Ghogho from UIR, B. Hammouti from the University of Oujda, Abdellah Benzaouia from the University of Marrakech, Hmamed Abdelaziz from the University of Fez and A. Zarrouk from the University of Rabat, have been positioned, reports L’Economiste.

However, "this ranking includes researchers operating in Morocco, but they do not owe their ranking 100% to their Moroccan universities. They manage to distinguish themselves through their collaboration with foreign institutions," said Yahia Boughaleb, president of the Chouaïb Doukkali University of El Jadida. A statement supported by Mounir Ghogho, head of the ICT laboratory and dean of the doctoral college of the International University of Rabat (UIR).

In Morocco, doctoral students are entitled to a scholarship of nearly 1,000 DH and the excellence scholarship is 3,000 DH. Extremely low amounts to attract people. Even if "in recent years, Moroccan research has benefited from more funding, through the multiplication of R&D project calls, this remains insufficient," laments Mounir Ghogho.

Moreover, "being associated with a prestigious international team is crucial" for a researcher, said Chakib Nejjari, president of the Mohammed VI University of Health Sciences, ranked among the top 2% of 2019. Even if Morocco can boast of having world-class researchers operating from the Kingdom, their number remains limited compared to other countries in the MENA region such as Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.