ISLAMABAD: The National Science & Technology Park at NUST held the Graduation Ceremony of the 3rd cohort of its Hatch 8 Programme at the NUST main campus on Thursday.

As many as 16 startups built upon disruptive ideas have graduated as part of the third cohort. Hatch 8 is a pre-incubation programme of NSTP, which admits entrepreneurs at the idea stage of their product development and transforms them into viable businesses in due course of time.

Federal Minister for Planning, Development & Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal, was the chief guest who felicitated the startups upon graduating from one of the most robust innovation ecosystems in the region. He was all-praise for NUST for having come up with the game-changing initiative of NSTP, which truly is a breeding ground for innovation. He further said that creativity is the solution to each one of our problems and NSTP is nothing short of a creative powerhouse for innovation.

Dr Rizwan Riaz, Pro-Rector RIC, expressed his utmost pleasure in seeing the increasing number of people stepping forward with their startups, and paving the way for their own betterment and that of the society.