The signing ceremony of Institutional Agreement among the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Intellectual Property Organisation (IPO) and Host Institutions for establishment of Technology & Innovation Support Centre (TISC) Network in Pakistan with support from World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was organized here on Tuesday.
During the signing ceremony 27 institutional agreements were signed in between different universities and R&D organizations. Muhammad Naseer, Executive Director, IPO, Dr. Muhammad Latif, Advisor R&D-HEC were the main signatories whereas from universities the vice chancellors and their representatives from respective ORICs signed the institutional agreements.
Engr. Muhammad Baligh Ur Rehman, Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training was chief guest of the ceremony while Prof. Dr. Arshad Ali, Executive Director HEC, was the guest of honour. Salim Ranjha, Executive Director, IPR Enforcement (Pakistan Customs), representatives of Chamber of Commerce and vice chancellors of various universities were also present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion Engr. Baligh-ur-Rehman congratulated all the stakeholders for achieving the milestone. The minister stressed that we need to lead our youngsters in the right direction. He further assured that higher education is the priority of government of Pakistan and HEC. He sustained that the government funded Rs. 40 billion in 2012 to universities through HEC which has now increased to Rs 100 billion.
He further told that nations cannot progress without acknowledging the efforts of their researchers, adding that this ceremony is an effort to encourage youngsters to bring forward their innovative ideas for socio-economic development of the country. He said that the establishment of TISC will protect the innovative ideas and promote creativity and commercialization.
Prof. Dr. Arshad Ali told that in order to establish TISCs at different universities and R&D organizations, HEC has received applications from 51 universities and R&D institutions in response to its expression of interest. Out of the 51 applications, 23 universities and 4 R&D organizations were selected for official notification of TISC in Phase-I.
The Executive Director said that today is the landmark in the history of Pakistan as we are taking initiative in safeguarding intellectual property rights of our critical thinkers, researchers, academicians and innovators. He maintained that respecting and protecting intellectual property rights is one of the aspects of the initiative but taking advantage of the initiative is the real benefit. He added that HEC and IPO has developed a complete roadmap in two and a half years to strengthen the initiative.
He also motivated the innovators and critical thinkers and informed that HEC and IPO would also recognise the efforts of top three patent filers in the month of March, 2018.
Irfan Tarar expressed his views and said that since its inception, IPO is facilitating the public and is striving for the development of digitization and atomization sectors. He further informed the audience that during the year IPO has conducted over 100 awareness sessions to create awareness among common folk about intellectual property rights.
