UET, PSF hold workshop on 'research grant opportunities'

The University of Engineering & Technology (UET) in collaboration with Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF) held a workshop on "Research grant opportunities and proposal writing and funding", on Thursday. The University Vice Chancellor, Imtiaz Gilani, while addressing at opening session of workshop said that the universities are not only degree awarding institutions, but have a lot to deliver for national economic development.
He further added that there was no doubt that academics need to publish research papers in high impact factor journals to enhance career profile but our real life issues are demanding much more than publishing papers. He urged faculty to get involved in research of applied nature to address local issues.
"Training to write efficient research proposals is a highly technical subject, required to get funding and financial support, he said and adding, 'federal agencies such as Pakistan Science Foundation , Higher Education Commission and ICT R&D fund under the Federal Government can scale up our research to an adequate level, provided we are properly trained in writing research proposals.
"The objective of holding this workshop is to equip researchers with writing effective research proposals so that universities could directly contribute to enhance the knowledge base in the country," he said. Dr Manzoor Soomro, Chairman Pakistan Science Foundation, briefed the audience about PSF and its wing, PASTIC goals.
He encouraged Ph.D faculty members to initiate research proposals and assured PSF support for researchers in cutting edge technology. Dr Manzoor said, it has been a concern of government and policy makers that PSF is promote only those research projects, which are of basic nature, however, with changing times complex issues need to be taken up by foundation. "PSF, therefore, encourages you to write to us and get funding for viable solutions of today's problems", he remarked. The topics covered included, logical framework analysis for proposal write ups, funding mechanisms for PSF, HEC and ICT R& D funds, evaluation techniques for research grants.