Knowledge-based Economy Solution Of Emerging Challenges: Dr Iqrar

University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) Vice Chancellor (VC) Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan on Thursday said that knowledge-based economy was the only solution to cope with emerging challenges being confronted by the country

FAISALABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Dec, 2022 ) :University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) Vice Chancellor (VC) Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan on Thursday said that knowledge-based economy was the only solution to cope with emerging challenges being confronted by the country.

Addressing an awareness seminar organized by Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC) UAF at CAS Auditorium here on Thursday, he said that the UAF scientists partnering with local industry had successfully completed 27 research projects worth Rs.246.081 million under HEC's Technology Development Fund that would prove milestone in agricultural and rural development.

He said UAF was the leading institution countrywide in terms of winning research projects of Technology Development Fund (TDF), Higher education Commission (HEC). 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 socioeconomic growth of the country, he added.

He said that the fertilizer sector was only revolving around urea whereas the soil required 16 essential items. The scientists should concentrate for solution of all problems of farming sector, he said and added that in this regard, the UAF was also working on making sustainable development goals as part of the curriculum and the academia should focus on dealing with the real time public issues and find solutions with help of the industry.

Dr. Ghulam Sarwar from Higher Education Commission termed TDF a unique program for scientists across the country that had 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. There were 140 applications that had been submitted so far, he said, adding that the young faculty needed to visit the website and submit their proposals online.

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 up to Rs.14 million for each project.

He told the participants that after successful completion of first project of 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, Dr. Nadeem Tariq, Dr. Habib Aslam Gaba, Dr. Sajjad Arshad and other notables also spoke on the occasion.

Faculty members from Government College University Faisalabad (GCUF), Government College Women University Faisalabad (GCWUF), The University of Faisalabad (TUF) and National Textile University Faisalabad (NTUF) were also present in the seminar.