R&D Industry Programme
Socio-economic progress of any nation is achievable by development and appropriate use of indigenous technologies through application and commercialization of research. Socio-economic progress is the most daunting task faced by the third world countries. Pakistan is a country blessed with tremendous amount of natural resources, state of the art public sector capability and well established marketability system in the private sector. However, a strong and sustainable link amongst research organizations, industrial community/end-users and funding institutions is some what lacking and has to be established to achieve the objective of economic independence which directly enhances the quality of life in any society.
To meet the emerging global challenges, scientific and industrial community should follow an integrated and collaborative approach. Industrial community has to be facilitated in the identification of research issues and R & D organizations should embark upon marketable research projects so the results drawn from them can be applied to solve industrial problems.
The socio-economic development is targeted through the utilization of indigenous research results. PSF is actively promoting the concept of Applied Research and Industrial Linkages under its R&D- Industry Programme. Its core focus is to promote and commercialize the technologies/products to effectuate socio-economic needs of the country eradicating our dependence on the imports. We are looking upon three prime objectives to be accomplished out of our research activities and these are fulfillment of national needs, import substitution and exports. In this context, Industrial Linkages Programme (ILP) was started in the year 2002 to provide a platform whereby end-users, funding institutions and research organizations work in close coordination to ensure application of research, development of technology, its transfer and commercialization. This programme was approved by PSF's Board of Trustees on 10-8-2005 and renamed as "R&D - Industry Programme". Under this programme, linkages are being established amongst Academia, R&D organizations and Industrial community. This Public Private Partnership (PPP) shall pave way to achieve socio-economic targets.
Another main objective of this programme is to transfer the benefits of scientific research to the common people through technology development and its commercialization. Financial support is provided for Pilot Plant studies of such industrial projects. In this way, PSF is trying to bridge the gap between industrial community and R&D organizations within the country.
Another important feature of this programme is the development of Technology Transfer Mechanism / Package because this is the basic step which leads to the Commercialization of Technology.