Technology Development Fund Awareness Seminar

December 8: In the modern era, knowledge based economy is the only solution to cope with the different challenge confronting the country whereas the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) scientists partnering with local industry have successfully completed 27 research projects worth Rs 246.081 million under HEC’s Technology Development Fund that will prove milestone in agricultural and rural development. It was stated by UAF Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Iqrar Ahmad Khan during an awareness seminar organized by Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC) UAF at CAS Auditorium . Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said the UAF is the leading institution countrywide in terms of winning research projects of the Technology Development Fund, Higher Education Commission. He said that since the transformation of university grants commission into Higher Education Commission, tremendous horizontal growth took place in terms of spawning new universities and colleges, new PhDs, research funding but that could not put a significant impact on the socio-economic growth of the country and “same is the case with impact factor publications could not put a dent in the poverty, and social reforms” he added. He said that the fertilizer sector is only revolving around urea whereas the soil required 16 essential items. He said that the University was working on making sustainable development goals as part of the curriculum. He said the only recipe for real growth is to make the youth skillful during their course of study and encourage them for entrepreneurship that would not only employ them but also create more job opportunities. He said academia should focus on dealing with the real time public issues and find solutions with the help of the industry. Dr. Ghulam Sarwar from Higher Education Commission termed TDF a unique program for scientists across the country that has the capacity to earn revenue for HEC as out of 180 projects, there were 160 projects reached the level of signing the license with industry. He told that 25 TDF projects were generating revenue for HEC. He said that there were 140 applications that have been submitted so far “the young faculty needs to visit the website and submit their proposals online” he added. Director ORIC Prof. Dr. Zahir Ahmad Zahir urged the university faculty to submit their proposals online before or on December 20, 2022 and fetch huge funding upto 14 million PKR for each project. He told the participants that after successful completion of the first project of the launching phase, he secured and completed the second project. He was of the view that 2-year time duration should be enhanced so that a project could conclude with some patents or at least successfully be commercialized and harness its full potential. Dr Khurram Zia said that UAF is the pioneer agriculture institution in the subcontinent that has been producing the skilled manpower and tangible researchers since 1906. Dr. Nadeem Tariq, Dr. Habib Aslam Gaba, Dr. Sajjad Arshad and other notables also also spoke on the occasion. Faculty members from Government College University Faisalabad, Government College Women University Faisalabad, The University of Faisalabad and National Textile University also took part in the awareness seminar.