Dr. Mounia Benalil

Biography

Mounia Benalil founded and directs the Science Diplomacy Program at the Institute for Advanced Studies at UM6P in Ben Guerir. This pan-African initiative is based on a simple observation. Africa sits at the table where scientific standards are applied, not the one where they are defined. The program trains professionals who can change this by bridging scientific expertise, international cooperation, and geopolitical issues.

Through the program, Benalil is developing a framework tailored to Moroccan and African contexts. This framework involves training practitioners, fostering dialogue between researchers and decision-makers, and testing new models of cooperation. The program has two goals: to empower African researchers, universities, and institutions to participate in forums where global scientific priorities and rules are established and to enable institutions to translate knowledge into public policy.

Her work lies at the intersection of intercultural and postcolonial studies, epistemology, and cultural and scientific diplomacy.
Mounia Benalil has a Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies and Postcolonial Theories from the University of British Columbia and has worked for over twenty years at the intersection of research and public policy. She is a research and development senior advisor at the École nationale d’administration publique, a research associate at the Observatoire de la francophonie économique at the University of Montréal, and the founder of MdC Strategies Inc. Her groundbreaking research on immigrant entrepreneurship secured funding for Quebec’s first Living Lab dedicated to this topic. Her work has been supported by several Canadian and Quebec funding agencies. She served as a delegate to the Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference in 2022.