The University of Cambridge within the UK and Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), Islamabad, have signed a historic memorandum of understanding (MoU) to advertise collaboration in Materials Science and Emerging Technologies, a transfer aimed toward strengthening Pakistan’s analysis capability and worldwide educational partnerships.
The settlement, signed in London, will help the launch of a Rs3.5 billion joint initiative beneath the URAAN Pakistan PSDP to determine an Institute of Advanced Materials Sciences — the first-ever collaboration of its sort between a Pakistani public-sector college and Cambridge.
Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, current on the ceremony, described the partnership as a “historic step toward building Pakistan’s knowledge economy.” He mentioned the collaboration would hyperlink Pakistani universities with worldwide accelerators, enterprise funds, and know-how companions, strengthening academia–{industry} ties and selling the commercialization of analysis.
Read: Breaking free from inertia
The QAU-Cambridge partnership consists of:
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$0.7 million for college and pupil exchanges, joint analysis applications, and know-how switch pathways.
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Focus on clear power materials, aerospace composites, healthcare applied sciences, digital innovation, and advanced manufacturing.
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Commitment to launch the primary trade cohort, industry-backed demonstrators, and a structured patent pipeline inside 100 days, marking a leap towards an innovation-driven, globally aggressive Pakistan.
Simultaneously, one other MoU was signed between Cambridge Enterprise Ltd, UK, an affiliate of Cambridge University, and the Pakistan Institute for Development Economics (PIDE), Islamabad, aimed toward strengthening Pakistan’s innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The partnerships replicate Pakistan’s push to reinforce analysis, innovation, and know-how commercialization whereas fostering worldwide collaboration in frontier scientific disciplines.
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Pakistan’s partnerships with establishments just like the University of Cambridge and Cambridge Enterprise Ltd come at a crucial time, because the nation grapples with stagnation in analysis, innovation, and high-value {industry}.
Nadeem Javaid, Vice Chancellor of PIDE, has highlighted that Pakistan dangers being caught within the “Middle-Income Trap,” the place development stalls regardless of rising prices and ambition outpacing capability.
Initiatives resembling joint analysis applications, college exchanges, and know-how switch pathways goal to interrupt this cycle by constructing human capital, fostering innovation, and linking academia with {industry} essential steps towards reworking Pakistan’s data economic system and making a globally aggressive, innovation-driven future.