STAFF REPORT IBD: The Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), through its different organizations, has approached academia and industries to bridge the gap between them and promote the demand driven applied research in the country.
“The role of MoST in integrating academia, Research and Development (RandD) organisation and industry had been overlooked in the past,” said MoST Secretary Akhlaq Ahmad Tarar while addressing an MoU between the ministry and Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU).
The MoU envisages collaboration for promotion of demand driven applied research, indigenisation of technologies and entrepreneurship development. It also aims at sharing human, material and financial resources of the collaborators to undertake and promote need-based research and development, commercialisation of the intellectual property developed through collaborative research and transfer of technology to the industry for industrial and socio-economic development in the country.
Dr Yasinzai, VC QAU, said that in Pakistan, there was a huge gap between RandD organisations, academia and industry that had hampered industrial growth.
He said that QAU had established an office of industrialisation and commercialisation (ORIC) in the university. The VC said academia had the responsibility to get engaged in demand driven applied research and set targets of industrial growth for them.
Dr Shahid said MoST initiated the Commercialization Programme and established the Commercialization Cell in 2011 to guide, support and build capacity of its organisations in undertaking demand driven research and commercialisation of their intellectual property.