Professor Eleanor Robson, Director of the Nahrein Network, signs an MoU with the Ministry of Higher Education.

On 16 January 2025, the Nahrein Network and the Ministry of Higher Education, in the presence of the Prime Minister of Iraq, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The event was held in London, which coincided with an Iraqi government delegation visit to the United Kingdom. The MoU covers the organisation of research grants, scholarships and support to Iraqi universities in the fields that the Nahrein Network focuses on. 

In addition to the Nahrein Network, the Ministry of Higher Education signed 12 MoUs with universities in the United Kingdom, some of which were for specific research programmes. The majority of those agreements were however for paving the way for the Iraqi Government’s initiative to fund 5,000 masters and PhD scholarships, many of which will be at universities in the United Kingdom. 

After the ceremony was completed, a workshop was organized by the British Council, which is spearheading the ‘Academic Bridge Programme’, an initiative to strengthen research and knowledge exchange between UK and Iraqi universities. The Academic Bridge Programme is about upgrading Iraq’s intellectual and technical capacities across all sectors and fields and is designed with a view to harnessing higher education opportunities and to support upskilling Iraq’s universities to better address the country’s challenges.