Lahore, April 03, 2023 (PPI-OT):Nowadays, globalization is changing the way institutions foster knowledge transfer from universities to society. Today, society, governments, and the business sector are increasingly demanding that higher education institutions (HEIs) convert their innovative ideas into marketable technology. Taking its social responsibility forward, Prof Dr Syed Amir Gilani (Pro-Rector, Allied Health Sciences, UOL), on behalf of Prof Dr Muhammad Ashraf (Rector, UOL), attended the World Rectors’ Forum on “The Role of Universities in Building a National Innovation Ecosystem” in Kyrgyzstan where he reinforced the importance of the potential of knowledge and technology transfer in higher education institutions through academia-industry linkage.
This international forum – attended by 100 rectors of higher educational institutions from 60 countries – facilitated partnerships between local universities and international partners through their schools of sciences. All the formed alliances aimed at increasing the market share of research and educational services, and improving the competitiveness of the intellectual activity outcomes. During the various panel sessions, the participants also discussed various ways of strengthening the scientific and technical capacity, developing practical recommendations for the commercialization of the universities’ intellectual activity outcomes, and organizing innovation-focused trainings for universities’ staff.
Discussing the challenges, Dr Gilani said that new scientific knowledge transfer between academia and businesses is an important driver of innovation and economic growth. He maintained that researchers will get benefit from interacting with businesses and such interaction helps to generate new lines of research and provide additional funding. He further highlighted the importance of technology transfer, models of industry-academia linkage, and their advantages as well as the world, Pakistan, and the UOL’s status on technology transfer.
In the world forum, the Pro-Rector Allied Health Sciences recommended that universities should develop curricula of different academic programs with comprehensive input from eminent industrialists, industry, and institutions. He added that each science faculty should constitute an industry board that may act as an advisory agent for the initiation of industry-oriented projects on top of arranging guest lectures delivered to both undergrads and postgrads by eminent industrialists.
Dr Gilani further said that a university must develop a very sound infrastructure where basic research, pilot projects and upscaling could be easily carried out, adding that internship programs be very viable and should be carried at industrial set-ups. He further suggested that there is a need to trigger relevant ministries for devising plausible policies which should facilitate and reinforce industry-academia linkages.
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