Technology Parks have a proven track record of playing an important role in supporting and sustaining economy and technological development of a country. Technology parks bring different stakeholders together on a common platform to foster new technology-based businesses and thus generate economic activity.
Leading economies of the world have capitalised on this concept to serve their communities and earn invaluable foreign exchange. In Pakistan, we can customise the proven models of Technology Parks to suit our unique needs. NUST has made significant progress in this regard by designing its own Technology Pak model to be implemented at its new campus in sector H-12, Islamabad.
TECHNOLOGY INCUBATION CENTER: NUST has designated fifty acres of land in H-12 sector for Technology Park/ business incubation. A state-of-the-art building of 40,000 square feet is under construction on a four-acre land parcel for technology / business incubatees (start-up businesses). This building will accommodate 35 incubatees.
Another building of 50,000 square feet is planned to be constructed on another four acre land parcel. This building will be suitable for diverse production operations as desired by incubatees. The building will have an inventory of manufacturing and assembly equipment suitable for manufacturing operations such as forming, machining, milling, grinding, welding, brazing, soldering, cutting, drilling, mixing extruding, injection moulding, blow moulding, roller and belt conveying, heat treatments, painting, and various assembly operations.
This facility will accommodate businesses either coming directly out of technology incubator or from outside with already developed product, ready for custom production. Incubatees will be able to construct their production line by organising the available equipment and assembly tools as per their manufacturing process. The equipment and tools could be employed to set up production lines for diverse products.
Incubation' promotes entrepreneurship by helping start-up businesses become successful; a concept best known as 'business incubation.' Taking on the traditional role of an incubation facility or an 'Incubator,' it provides its client firms a business-conducive environment with necessary strategic and operational support services.
This reduce the amount of initial investment to set up a business venture and increases the success potential of a business. Although incubation is gaining the status of an industry in many countries due to their highly successful programs and related support structure, in Pakistan, little has been done to provide a sound infrastructure for its development.
Realising this, NUST, in its quest to help Pakistan compete globally, established NUST Technology Incubation Centre in September 2004, the first technology incubator in Pakistan. This initiative was equally important to transform a predominantly civil service society into an entrepreneurial society to develop the SME sector of Pakistan, which is the backbone of any developed economy.
While concept was not very well known among the business community in Pakistan, it is slowly but steadily beginning to establish its presence mainly due to the efforts put forth by the NUST Technology Incubation Center. With the spread of awareness among key stakeholders the support for the industry is also building up gradually.
Evidence to this fact is the latest initiative of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to start-off incubation / technology park ventures in major public sector universities, however of Pakistan. Understandably, the major hurdle is the lack of a policy framework, misconception about the concept itself, and training and guidance required to take up the task.
MISSION: To provide an environment that attracts and nurtures technology based start-up companies transforming them into commercially viable enterprise.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES To help potential entrepreneurs such as students, NUST faculty, and general public to incubate their technology based companies. To provide support to NUST colleges / schools / centres for patenting their research and development work.
To liaison with private/public sector enterprises and funding sources, govt. agencies, industrial association, chambers and FPCCI to provide facilitation and networking for incubatee companies.
TIC is part of university's drive to prove itself as a world class learning center and is amongst many advanced institutions being set-up at its four km2 wide state-of-the-art new campus. The purpose built TIC building is currently under-construction and will house 35 plus start-up firms of different sizes. The new building has been planned in way that allows for variable sizes of the office space to meet the unique needs of each firm without compromising their privacy, flow of operations and provision of utility services such as electricity, water-supply, telephones, internet, etc.
Currently, TIC is operating in a rented building in vicinity of the under-construction campus. At the time of its inception, TIC had space for six companies which over the time became insufficient and the Center had to hire additional accommodation increasing the total number of available offices spaces to 13.
The Center hopes to move to its Custom-built facility by the mid of year 2009 and expects significant growth in the number of its client firms. The resident companies of TIC operate in three industrial sectors namely Information & Communication Technologies (ICT), Engineering, and Technology-based Services.
SUPPORT SERVICES: At our current location the Center offers following services to the incubated firms:
-- Office space (typically a 250 sq. ft. room) with two workstation desks, four visitor chairs, one large cupboard and carpeted flooring
-- Basic infrastructure including electricity supply, telephone lines, natural gas supply, water supply, attached bath with janitorial supplies and services
-- Shared office services such as high speed printers (both colour and B & W), Photocopier machines, broadband internet, facsimile, multi-media projection system and computing equipment is offered at a cost equivalent to consumables only
-- Acces to share spaces on need basis such as conference rooms, cafeteria and kitchen
-- Refinement of business feasibility analysis
-- Assistance in the development of a sound business plan to increase the success rate of business
-- Patenting, copyrights and trademarked facilitation services for incubated firm business / products
-- Support in identification of funding resources and securing funds (under development)
-- Support in reaching out to customers and marketing of products/services
-- Access to state-of-the-art engineering and scientific labs
-- Consultancy services of university faculty (over 500 PhD and MS resource persons)
-- Networking with peers, relevant business groups and associations
MANAGEMENT TEAM: TIC team is a closely knitted group of Business Development, Enterprise Development and Admin Support personnel. The Director General and General Manager provide strategic guidelines and operational supervision of the organisation. The members of this group have extensive work experience in leading international firms as well as indepth understanding of academia processes.
Business development group takes care of business planning, modelling and marketing activities. Additionally Business Development Group also shoulders the responsibility of reviewing/conducting the feasibility studies, evaluation of business potential and identification of funding resources/mechanism.
Enterprise Development Officers form the most critical group in terms of interaction with incubated firms. Enterprise Development Officers or EDOs act the single point of contact for all the matters relating to Incubated firms and their facilitation.
EDOs are also responsible for collecting regular update on the business state of the incubated firms and report its to all members in weekly meetings corresponding to the focus areas of the Center, ie, ICT, Engineering, and Services Sector, a designated EDO is responsible for managing client development in each sector.
Support group at TIC includes staff that assists in meeting the administrative and IT needs of incubated firms in their day to day operational activities.
HOW TO START WITH THE TIC: In order to secure the status of an incubated firm at the Center, potential clients need to fill a formal application form (available at www.tic.org.pk). On receipt of the application, it is vetted by the team members from business development.
Initial processing of an application usually takes four to five business days and is discussed at different forums within the organisation. On the completion of initial processing, the client is contacted by a representative of the team to let him/her know whether the application has qualified for the second stage or not.
If TIC team perceives the business idea to be viable and believes that it can assist in setting up the business venture to make it successful, then the applicant is requested to bring detailed feasibility study/major milestones along with a formal presentation.
After the completion of this step the business idea is once again deliberated and is presented to senior management for their approval. This is followed up by a formal letter from our team informing the application about the outcome of the application.
AFTER THE SELECTION: On successful completion of selection process, the client is given a tenancy agreement which normally accompanies aforementioned offer letter. This agreement outlines terms and modalities of TIC relationship with the incubatee firm for the period of its stay at the Center. Signing of agreement along with a payment equivalent to six months rent (3months advanced rent and 3 months as refundable security deposit) is made before occupancy of the office space.
For the initial period of six months the firm is considered in the pre-incubation phase and its status is probationary. During this time, the Center helps the firm establish a fully function business unit and observe how its business evolves.
At the end of pre-incubation period, if the firm shows signs of maturity in its promised potential then the status of the firm is converted to a regular incubated firm. We expect a firm to reach full maturity level by the end of third year (inclusive of pre-incubation period) and facilitate its move in the open market or to the next level of facilitation in the Technology Park. The milestone of a firm moving out of incubation facility after successful completion of its incubation period is call 'Graduation' of the firm.
CHALLENGES: It has been a significant challenge to attract clients. Without a defined mechanism and supportive framework at the national level. TIC is investing heavily in efforts to bring clients into the incubation facility. Pakistan being a pre-dominantly job-oriented nation, the concept of incubation is relatively new and the idea of entrepreneurship is gradually evolving.
Incentives and encouragement are required to create an enabling environment of self-employment for the budding entrepreneurs by encouraging them to create high-tech start-up companies.
THERE ARE MANY CHALLENGES IN THIS REGARD, SOME OF THESE ARE LISTED BELOW:
-- Promotion of research culture at: Universities Government research centers National industrial base
-- The need for overarching government policies to support incubation and parks with other innovation and entrepreneurship policies.
-- Availability of funding sources to eligible entrepreneurs:
SPECIAL GRANT AS SEED CAPITAL FOR NEW BUSINESS START-UPS: Access to Government subsidised loans for research and start up businesses Incentives for banks to extend debt and equity loans to start up businesses
-- Federally insured loans for incubates by banks and venture capitalists
-- Flexibility to use university R&D fund for incubation, if necessary
PROMOTION OF ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE: A paradigm shift is necessary to transform a predominantly Civil Service society to entrepreneurial society. Universities and other Educational Institutions to offer educational programs in entrepreneurship and small business development.
PREFERENTIAL POLICIES OF INCUBATE COMPANIES; SUCH AS:
-- Un-interrupted supply of utilities at subsidised rates.
-- Tax holidays
-- Help with regulatory
-- Process
-- Protection from red tape
-- Relocation to industrial
-- Estates at subsidised rates
-- Lenient policy on
-- Machinery and raw
-- Material imports
-- TIC Initiatives
In order to attract and encourage entrepreneurs, TIC has devised the strategy of holding sessions with graduating classes of engineering and information technology schools at NUST and other universities in the locality. It is not worthy that majority of most successful and most promising firms at TIC are headed by young individuals / groups - of - individuals.
However, it is acknowledged that establishing a pipeline of potential incubation clients may require a more fundamental approach, eg starting at the school level. The above mentioned challenges also have a bearing on the quality of client intake. This is one of the reasons that TIC has so far served 23 client firms out of which almost half have left the incubator without graduating.
COLLABORATIONS: TIC actively participates at international forums to learn from the experiences of its industry predecessors and benefit form their ideas and lessons. It holds memberships in prestigious organisations such as Asian Association of Business Incubation, National Business Incubation Association USA, International Business Incubator (IBI), China.
The center is also exploring possibilities of joint collaboration between InfoDev, World Bank and TIC for promotion of incubation in Pakistan. In addition, TIC is a signatory to Pak-China MoU on bilateral co-operation between the two countries development of business incubation in Pakistan.
FUTURE DIRECTION: By blending the experiences of the past few years, cultural and socio-economic requirements, and learning from the experiences and lessons of successful incubation in other parts of the world, TIC has developed a custom-built business mechanism to run its future operations.
While most of the incubation services are provided at subsidised rate or no charge at all, the Center has decided to negotiate equity with firms in following cases:
-- Extensive marketing / business development services are availed by the incubated firm
-- Funding sources are arranged and negotiated by TIC
-- Incubated firm involves
-- TIC experts in design and Development of product/Service
In order to protect the business interests of its client firms, TIC allows them to hold controlling shares and establishes mutual understanding with the help of formal agreements/contracts. Currently, two incubatee projects are being considered using this model of incubation.
TIC is also in the process of assisting its parent university in setting up the first technology park of the country. The park will be located in new campus and is aimed at facilitating transition of incubated companies from the incubator to open market.
The potential of this technology park is many folds since it will be located in the vicinity of a proposed "knowledge" park in the federal capital. An additional characteristic of the Technology Park would be its ability to bring in "spin-in companies" such as R&D wings or liaison offices of established industrial groups.
Being a pioneer in its particular area of operations, TIC often takes lead in promotional and awareness activities relating to incubation industry in Pakistan. TIC intends to establish itself as a role model incubator facility in the long run and plans to help other universities, NGOs or groups in setting up of their own incubation facilities. Management of TIC envisions the emergence of a strong SME sector as a result of co-ordinated activities of incubation industry that will bring valuable social and economical benefits for the local community and the country as a whole.
NUST-TIC is ideally prepared to lead the national institutions in development of incubation / technology parks as supported by the following facts:
NUST PIONEERED THE START OF TECHNOLOGY INCUBATION CENTER: NUST is multidisciplinary center of excellence for research and development in multiple fields of sciences & technology
-- NUST enjoys strong collaborative programs at M/S PhD level with reputed foreign universities.
-- NUST has highly qualified and experienced faculty
-- NUST is ideally located where 30% of nation's PhD work is going on within 30 mile radius
-- NUST's 40,000 square feet Technology Incubation Center building is planned to be completed in H-12 Sector Islamabad by mid 2009
-- NUST has designated 50 acres of land in H-12 for technology park/business incubation
-- NUST's Technology Park is also located in the vicinity of the planned "Knowledge" park in Islamabad.
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CONCEPT TO COMMERCIALIZATION - MAJOR MILESTONES
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Product Idea Concept Prototype and Custom Commercialisation
Innovation Selection Product Testing Production Selection
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Services and Resources Services and Resources Services and Resources Services and Resources
Concept and project Funding requirement Custom production Commercial business
refinement Shop floor plan plan
Funding estimates & infrastructure Funding requirement Investment and
sources Procurement assistance Custom market operating cash
Physical infrastructure Manufacturing process development Production, executive
and administrative consultancy Manufacturing process and admin staff
support Testing process and and equipment HR training
Technical equipment Workforce training Marketing
consultancies Prod. reliablity Production Mfg. Process and
R&D facilities evaluation Quality verification facilities
Product D/design and In-service performance Packaging and Quality systems
validation Design finalization distribution Distribution network
Manufacturing Custom feedback and Service after sale
feasibility process finalization infrastructure and
Marketability customer satisfaction
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