Two New Seed Grants Programmes in Science and Technology for Pakistan through USAID
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Author:
Sidrah Zaheer
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agriculture business partnerships Centres for Advanced Studies cooperation agreement creativity energy energy sector Entrepreneurs innovation Islamabad National University of Sciences and Technology Pakistan's economy Pakistan's energy crisis Pakistan-U.S. cooperation Pakistan-U.S. Science and Technology Symposium Pakistani universities research institutes research projects researchers Richard Olson science science and technology symposium science projects scientific development seed grants seed grants programmes technology U.S. Ambassador U.S. Science Envoy universities USAID water water management
Earlier this month, the U.S. Ambassador Richard Olson announced at the National University of Sciences and Technology in Islamabad at occasion of the “Pakistan-U.S. Science and Technology Symposium: Economic Growth through Technology Transfer”, a new package of funding for Pakistani researchers that will be focused toward projects relevant to the market. Hence, private sector partners will be encouraged to produce innovation and commercially successful projects.
The event was organised by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology. The point that the American ambassador emphasized on was the necessity of cooperation due to globalisation of the world economy and requirement for innovation solutions.
This is exactly the kind of approach that is needed to be promoted for better relations amongst different countries. Issues of a society’s development must be dealt with economic aspects in place, instead of politicizing everything which never serves a good propose except degradation of what could have been. With better opportunities, creativity comes forth and that is where the human progress in this globalized world resides in.
There will be two competitive seed grant programs in 2013, one is “Innovate!” and the other is “Collaborate!”. Researchers can apply for seed grants of up to $15,000 starting from summer this year and the applications will be made available. Those researchers who are interested in this great opportunity, can take further details by emailing at .
It has been ten years for the cooperation between the U.S. and Pakistan on science and technology through the symposium based on the cooperation agreement. There has been a funding of over $35 million through these ten years with research projects in more than 40 universities in both the countries. At this science and technology symposium, researchers, universities, research institutions, government officials, and entrepreneurs come together and coordinate for further projects and build partnerships for business.
There are workshops conducted on various subjects relevant to make cooperation in this field smooth and effective. Such research cooperation on issues of water treatment to conserve and reuse waste water, systems to detect germs, solar water-heating systems for rural areas, are being undertaken through the symposium.
Later this year, a visit from the U.S. Science Envoy, Dr. Bernard Amadei is expected to develop scientific cooperation in water, disaster prevention and other areas. The Centres for Advanced Studies is being funded by the USAID to work in water, agriculture and energy sectors in Pakistan.
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