ISLAMABAD ( BMZ REPORT )
Making Pakistani universities a powerhouse of high growth innovation is the main focus of Innovation Steering Committee that has been holding back-to-back brainstorming sessions to deliberate how to transform Pakistani universities to drive high impact innovation, applied research and entrepreneurship.
In another meeting of the Committee held at HEC Secretariat, chaired by Mr. Imtiaz Rastgar, different opportunities and challenges for tapping potential of faculty members and students were discussed at length and the members were tasked to come up with models and format to make role of Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC) more proactive and target-oriented. Dr. Arshad Ali, Executive Director, was also present during the meeting.
Incentive policy for ORIC, faculty and students to attract them for innovation commercialization and entrepreneurship was also thoroughly discussed, besides presentation of a roadmap for ORIC visibility and outreach. The meeting also mulled over strategy to engage senior management of universities to further strengthen scope of ORIC, and the process of their monitoring and evaluation.
Dr. Arshad Ali reiterated HEC’s commitment to enhance the scope of innovation and commercialization through incubation centres. He also shed light on various other programmes of the Commission that help universities in developing a culture of relevant research.
The Committee also discussed means to strengthen links between academia and industry through ORICs. The meeting was attended by representatives of industry, ORICs and other stakeholders.