ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has invited faculty members of public and private sector universities and degree awarding institutions to submit research proposals that can help address issues pertaining to socio-economic development of Pakistan and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), in particular.

According to official sources, the CPEC Collaborative Research Grant (CPEC-CRG) is one of the key components of recently launched HEC initiative, namely “Academic Collaboration under CPEC Consortium of Universities”.

The CPEC-CRG is anticipated to support promising research partnerships between Pakistan and China in specific priority areas of national interest, utilizing research potential and experience of China in resolving national challenges in these areas, the sources informed.

The CPEC-CRG awards will be selected competitively, using a merit-based, independent, transparent evaluation and selection process based on international standards. The amount of funding will range up to PKR 25 million with a maximum project duration of 2 years. In exceptional cases, budget allocation to individual project may go up to PKR 30 million.

The preference will be given to proposals on socio-economic impact assessment of completed and on-going projects, launched under CPEC portfolio.

The Principal Investigator (PI) must be a faculty member (PhD or MPhil / MS / MBA, FCPS / FRCS) working on regular/contract basis (contract duration must be equal to or more than the project duration) in the Higher Education Institutions (public or private) of Pakistan that are members of CPEC Consortium of Universities, as per the list provided on HEC website.

The project team may include researchers from one or more universities and must include at least one Co-PI from Chinese universities that are members of CPEC Consortium of Universities.

The applications on prescribed template along with requisite documents must be submitted via HEC online portal, i.e., research.hec.gov.pk.

For further information regarding proposal submission requirements and evaluation process, please refer to the Call for Proposals Guidance available on: http://www.hec.gov.pk/site/cpec-crg.