HEC holds Roundtable to Deliberate on Raising Research Funding thru CSR

Islamabad, January 4, 2024: The Higher Education Commission (HEC), in collaboration with relevant government ministries and academic and industrial sector stakeholders, held a roundtable for deliberations on ‘Enhancing Research Funding through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)’.

The roundtable was organised on the directives of Prime Minister of Pakistan, who had stressed the need for devising a national strategy for funding research through industrial CSR to solve societal problems.

Presided over by Chairman HEC Dr. Mukhtar Ahmad, the roundtable was attended by prominent representatives from government bodies such as the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, Ministry of Industries and Production, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Information Technology & Telecom, and Pakistan Science Foundation. Senior management from nationwide industries/corporate bodies and eminent researchers and academic experts also participated in-person or online.

In his remarks, Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed stressed the need for all stakeholders to work together and bring on table the achievements made so far individually, so that mega issues currently faced by Pakistan could be addressed.

Member Research, Development & Innovation (HEC) Dr. Bushra Mirza highlighted the overall objective of the roundtable and reflected on the need for the industry’s active engagement with academia. She underlined the recent initiatives taken by HEC to bring the academia and industry on one page.

Senior Joint Secretary, Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training Mr. Abdul Sattar Khokar emphasised the need for an industry-academia matchmaking forum for resolving industrial problems through academic research-based solutions. He stressed the importance of inclusion of government bodies in the dialogue for introducing requisite legislative reforms.

Earlier, Director R&I Division (HEC) Ms. Noshaba Awais presented the roundtable’s agenda with the tagline: “strategy for enhancing impact of CSR with long term benefits for society and common man”.

The roundtable participants underlined the importance of CSR as a business practice for producing societal impact. They emphasised streamlining CSR contributions in due support from concerned government bodies.

The forum also underlined the rising need of actively pursuing and harnessing industry-academia relations, which would be fundamental to furthering the goals. The participants also agreed on devising policy level interventions and reforms that will fuel the engagement of industry with academia and increase the confidence of industry in academia driven research outcomes. The roundtable outcomes will be widely circulated with relevant stakeholders and a strategic document will be prepared and presented to the Prime Minister of Pakistan for consideration and adoption by the government.