HEC invites Academia -industry collaborative proposals to enhance Pakistan economic capacity through import substitution under the RAPID Technology Transfer Grant (RTTG) programme. Faculty members from public and private sector Universities/ Degree Awarding Institutes are encouraged to submit proposals.
The RAPID Technology Transfer Grant (RTTG) is an element of the Higher Education Development in Pakistan Project supported by the World Bank and implemented by the Higher Education Commission (HEC).
The RTTG is a fast-track funding mechanism developed to support time-sensitive technology transfer projects at an advanced stage that can make an impact on a short, six-month, timeline. This RTTG Call is focused on addressing Pakistan's current financial distress by encouraging industry-academia collaborations to enable import substitutions by promoting home-grown technologies.
KEY FEATURES
- Project Duration: Six (6) months
- Individual Grant Value: PKR 05 – 20 million
- Co-financing (minimum 15% cash contribution, along with in-kind contribution) from the industrial/sectoral partner.
PRIORITY AREAS
For this RTTG Call for Proposals, proposals must align with one of the Priority Thematic Areas for import substitutions indicated below:
- Health & Pharma
- Medicines and active pharmaceutical ingredients (low cost and indigenous production)
- Surgical Instruments (low cost, indigenous production, and digitization)
- Hand Antiseptics & Surgical Scrubs
- Surgical Supplies
- Bandages & Dressings for Health Care
- Medical Securement Tapes & Wraps
- Sterilization & Monitoring Devices
- Optical Lens Materials
- Testing instrumentation
- Other topics under Health & Pharma leading to Import Substitution
- Agriculture & Food Security
- Food Production and Crop Yield
- Genetically modified seeds (improved quality of indigenous Seeds)
- Grains & Cereals
- Cotton
- Fruits
- Field Productivity
- Crop Monitoring Systems
- Fertilizers (Smart application & local production)
- Crop Protection, Weed and Pest Management
- Plant Disease Prevention and Management
- Soil Testing & Its Quality
- Crop Yield Forecasting systems
- Edible Palm Oil (local production or local substitutes)
- Olive Oil (local production)
- Value added items derived from fruits & crops (Fruit essence etc).
- Other topics under Agriculture & Food Security leading to Import Substitution
- Textile
- We are looking for new indigenous technologies to reduce costs and imports dependence in;
- Fibre and Polymer Technology
- Material and Process Modelling
- Functional Textiles and Applications
- Sustainability and Society Impact in Textiles (Textile waste reduction)
- Testing and Evaluation of Textiles
- Other topics under Textile leading to Import Substitution
- Construction/Man-Made Materials (low cost & indigenous production of products/items for import substitution)
- Other topics under Material Sciences leading to Import Substitution
- Household Cosmetics and Body-care Goods for:
- Strengthening local cosmetics industry leading to import substitution
- Other topics under Household Cosmetics and Body-care Goods leading to Import Substitution.
- Fog and Smog Mitigation
- Pollution
- Other Topics under Environment leading to Import Substitution.
- Information Technology;
- Cyber Security
- Digital Forensics Solutions
- Cyber Threat Intelligence
- Social Media Analytics & Open Source Intelligence
- Automated Security Auditing & Vulnerability Assessment Solutions
- Industrial Cyber Security/ OT Security solutions
- IoT Security Solutions
- SIEM solutions
- Public Key Infrastructure Solutions
- End to end encryption solution
- Next Generation Firewalls
- Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems
- Mobile phones/smart Devices Management solutions
- Malware Analysis, Sandboxing, Reverse Engineering solutions
- Endpoint detection& protection solutions
- Network Traffic Analysis, Data Monitoring solutions
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- AI for Health Care
Medical diagnosis/ screening
Health monitoring and prediction
- Drug discovery and development
- Clinical decision-making support systems
- Smart and Precision Agriculture
- Soil quality analysis
- Disease and pest detection and control
- Autonomous farming equipment
- Smart Traffic Management and Control
- Mobile Augmented Vision and Virtual Reality for Smart Cities
- Smart energy management and optimization
- Safe City Management
- Waste Management
- Civil Safety AI Enabled Security Cameras/Drones
- Security Surveillance
- Personalized learning
- Intelligent tutoring systems
- Adaptive learning platforms
- Customer service and chatbots
- Media Monitoring and Analytics
- Disaster Prediction and Management
- Natural Language Processing
- Text and Data Mining
- Digitization
- Planning and Optimization Algorithms
- Autonomous Systems
- Robotics and Automation
- Energy Generation and Management
- Security/ Crime Prevention
- Disaster Management
- Other topics under Information Technology leading to Import Substitution
FUNDING DETAILS
- Honorarium for PI and co-PIs
- Stipends for bachelors, masters, doctoral students, and post-doctoral scholars to support taking the prototype or proposed product to market
- Limited prototype development costs
- Patent filing
- Costs associated with producing licensing agreements
- Legal and financial investment advice
- Marketing of the prototype or proposed product to appropriate investors or stakeholders.