HEC seeks research proposals from varsities for funding

Authority would provide funds to selected institutions based upon a competitive, peer-reviewed evaluation of proposals

ISLAMABAD:

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) asked the faculty members of public and private sector universities or degree awarding institutions to submit research proposals focused on the transfer of university-developed technologies and products to the industry and commercial sector under the Technology Transfer Support Fund (TTSF).

The TTSF would provide funds to selected institutions based upon a competitive, peer-reviewed evaluation of proposals. The budgets for TTSF awards will range between Rs7.5 and Rs15 million, with a maximum project duration of two years.

Principal investigators would be required to obtain co-financing, including in-kind and/or cash contributions from the industry collaborators.

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Industry co-financing must equal at least 50 per cent of the funding requested from HEC for the academic portion of the collaboration while greater amounts of industry co-financing were encouraged.

About the applicant eligibility, an official said that the principal investigator (PI) must be a regular faculty member (PhD or FCPS/MCPS/FRCS) working on a regular/contract basis (contract duration must not be less than project duration) in the higher education institutions either public and private.

The priority sectors for TTSF support included telecommunications, information technology and its application in health, textile, agriculture and agri-business like dairy and horticulture, engineering sciences, including microelectronics, water, power, energy and fleet management, biotechnology and Materials sciences, for example, nano-technology.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2021.