ISLAMABAD   -   The Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) Research, Development and Innovation Division (RD&I) under its flagship National Research Programme for Universities(NRPU) organized three-day sessions with the Chambers of Commerce/ Associations/ Industry from August 28-30,2024. According to the HEC Sources on Wednesday, the sessions entitled “Academia-Industry Collaborations for Applied/ Solicited Research and Strengthening of R&D to Establish Demand-Supply Chain” focused on three areas: Agriculture & Health, Electricals, Materials and Manufacturing and Textile, Leather & Household Items. As many as 40 representatives from aforementioned areas participated physically as well as through online link. Member (RD&I) HEC Dr. Bushra Mirza chaired the sessions.

The emphasis was to engage industry for solicited research by identifying industrial problem/ research areas. Dr. Bushra Mirza assured the industry representatives of HEC’s collaboration and support for mutual research programmes that will benefit the industry through resource sharing and standardized ways, inculcating the trend of need-based applied research in future. The industry showed keen interest in joining hands with HEC and academia to proceed with the solutions to relevant problems and upgrading the testing laboratories to international standards of quality parameters. It also agreed to bridge the gap between academia and industry by fostering this initiative of HEC and exploring other areas of collaboration.