NASA recently announced the manufacturers chosen to implement the "VITAL" ventilator project, among which is the design house of the Entrepreneurs Initiative at Nile University, which is sponsored by Banque Misr as part of its active contribution to the National Initiative "Nilepreneurs", which is sponsored by the Central Bank of Egypt and implemented by Nile University. The "Design House – Nile University" is the only manufacturer that was selected from Africa as one of the 13 companies chosen from around the world and amongst 331 companies in 42 countries that were registered to obtain a license to implement the project.

The project involves fabricating an ICU ventilator developed by NASA with the California Institute of Technology "CALTECH" and Mount Sinai Hospital to treat patients during the late stages of respiratory disease and for patients with the most severe symptoms of the emerging corona virus COVID-19. The device obtained permission for emergency use from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with NASA offering a free license to manufacture the "VITAL", while communicating with the finest manufacturers in the medical industry. The design house of Nile University was chosen to implement the project in Egypt, based on the proposal submitted by the initiative on how to develop a respirator and after conducting a technical interview to assess the capabilities of the design house center in the field of mechanical and pneumatic design, as well as its experience in electrical engineering. This is in addition to its expertise with product development and delivery to market. The initial production process of the device is expected to require about 2-3 months after obtaining the approval of the Egyptian Ministry of Health. NASA and "CALTECH" will follow-up and assess the performance of the initiative, which shall also be available for limited technical inquiries. Worth noting is that "Design House - Nile University" was inaugurated within the framework of a cooperation protocol between CBE, Banque Misr, and Nile University in May 2018, which was the first of its kind in Egypt. Ever since its inception, the Design House has achieved substantial successes including working with 30 companies and more than 25 start-ups in developing their products, in addition to cooperating with several Egyptian exporting companies to develop and analyze the performance of their products, in order to comply with international standards. The design house has also implemented more than 71 projects, including the development of 32 new projects and reverse engineering of 15 projects, in addition to developing 24 prototypes for entrepreneurial products.

The design house has a number of existing projects countering the COVID-19 pandemic, including Face Shield, which was designed and developed with the Micro Factory and is now distributed in hospitals. This is in addition to reverse engineering of an oxygen generator for a renowned medical equipment company; and the latest project, which is the development and manufacture of a respirator licensed by NASA - the NASA VITAL Ventilator.

Banque Misr has been keen on expanding design houses as part of the Nilepreneurs initiative, while striving to diversify their specialization to maximize benefits. The Bank has sponsored 3 other design houses other than "Design House - Nile University"; namely the design house of Ain Shams University – which operates as a link between the university and the industry sector to provide consulting, design services and prototypes, and its field of specialization will be in robotics, industrial automation and automobiles - and the design house of Al-Azhar University in Qena Governorate - which focuses on the fields of agriculture, water and energy to serve as the technical arm for the technology incubator to maximize the benefit for research centers, students, young innovators and researchers from other institutes and universities in order to spread the concept of innovation; and the Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport design house, which also focuses on marine science and underwater technologies in cooperation with many universities and organizations relevant to underwater technology.

Banque Misr is keen on expanding the inauguration of design houses within the Nilepreneurs initiative during the coming period, in order to enable the industry and businessmen to innovate and develop new products that meet the needs of consumers. This is by ensuring the best cost and quality – being the key to success in various industries – and thus contribute to driving development, creating more job opportunities and fighting unemployment.