Mian Rashid Asghar.
FAISALABAD: Higher Education Commission (HEC) has ranked University of Agriculture Faisalabad’s Office of Research, Innovation & Commercialization (ORIC) top ORIC office in any university of the country with the highest quality marks 82 followed by Institute of Business Administration Karachi (80.5), NED University of Engineering & Technology Karachi, Air University Islamabad, and National University of Science & Technology (NUST) with 80 marks each.
Under the dynamics of Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan, the UAF is opening up new avenue of the progress and prosperity.
UAF spokesman Prof Dr Jalal Arif said that the ranking was made on the basis of performance in research excellence, human resource and operations, innovation and commercialization, and sustainability and capacity building.
Director ORIC Prof Dr Zahir Ahmad Zahir said that the Key Progress Indicators were derived from HEC’s ORIC Policy 2021, which include: ORIC human resource, infrastructure and governance, assistance/research support, research proposal submissions, joint research projects run, contract research agreements, policy advocacy & consultancy, agreements singed for collaborations, linkages established with HEIs/corporate sector, MoUs signed with HEIs, commercialization of research, IP/Research Policy status, MoUs with industries/chambers for industrial linkages, patents filed and granted, liaison with industry, revenue generated, strategic plan, workshops, training and showcasing organized.
It is worth mentioning here that under the leadership of Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan, the University through ORIC has successfully completed 1,718 research projects worth Rs 1520 million since 2011 and right now, it is pursuing 499 such projects of Rs 2,233 million. From 2002 to 2022, there are 81,118 research publications compiled by google scholar. The scientists of this university had completed 35 consultancy projects with industry and 40 such consultancy proposals are in the pipeline. The UAF has got 19 patents registered and 38 are in the maturity stage of registration. UAF-ORIC has graduated 39 companies followed by 17 incubate companies and 08 startups. There are 8 varieties got approval and 15 more are in the maturity stage of approval by the government. With regard to linkages developed with industry, the figure is impressive as it has 122 such linkages developed during the some years. The recent initiative of ORIC for capacity building of the officers of Government of the Punjab, Department of Agriculture has given a potent reason to set up a capacity building center worth Rs 231 million at UAF.
UAF Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Iqrar Ahmad Khan (SI) while felicitating the Director ORIC Prof. Dr. Zahir Ahmad Zahir, described the winning crown for UAF-ORIC a soothing outcome of team work and exuberant commitment they demonstrated towards their work and profession.
