​​​​​​​​​Nurturing Academic Excellence in Strategic Sectors ($ 102.82 M)

The overall goal of Component 1 is to continue offering competitive grants for research, innovation, and commercialization to researchers and potential entrepreneurs who are employed by the HEIs' faculty, are currently enrolled in their programs, or have recently graduated.

HEDP supported HEC to launch six new mega research grants. These include, Rapid Research Grant (RRG), Grand Challenge Fund (GCF), Local Challenge Fund (LCF), Technology Transfer Support Fund (TTSF), Innovator Seed Fund (ISF) and Centers of Excellence (COE) grants.

​Most of these specialized grants were launched for the very first time by HEC, to address the much-needed socio-economic challenges of Pakistan through fruitful academia-industry collaborations. HEC felt a serious lack of capacity to handle large collaborative grants in Pakistan thus crucial training was needed as per international standards. Resultantly, several capacity building sessions were also held for researchers/ reviewers of the Pakistani academic research fraternity. As of now, notable outcomes include more than 1000 HR engaged in these projects with around 22% female awardees. It is important to note that the targets related to the award of grants and their associated outcomes have also been achieved as:

PBC-1 achievement stands at 99.5%

PBC-2 achievement stands at 99.04%

Moreover, a glance to these grants considering their impact at present is given as follows:

1. ​Grand Challenge Fund (GCF): The Grand Challenge Fund was committed to advancing research and innovation in crucial thematic areas of national importance, which includes food security, water management and sustainability, sustainable energy, sociology and philosophy, development economics, urban planning, climate change and environment, IT and telecom, innovation governance and reforms, and health and wellbeing. GCF has supported large multi-sectoral/multidimensional projects. For detailed information relating to this grant visit here. The outcomes from these grants comprise of publications in local and international journals, conferences, patent filings and multiple recognitions. As of now, the summary is given as follows:  

   Journal Publications	Conferences Publications	Patents	Events	Spinoffs	Awards/Recognitions	Tech Partnerships	Policy Development	Revenue Rs. (in millions)	Investments Rs. (in millions)
   100+	100+	15+	70+	4	18+	25+	20+	18+	435+​

   
   
2. Local Challenge Fund (LCF): LCF supports research grants addressed locally relevant socio-economic issues that included research projects and addressed any of the 17 SDGs at the district level. Research outcomes from LCF are summarized as follows:

   Journal Publications	Conferences Publications	Patents	Events	Spinoffs	Awards/Recognitions	Tech Partnerships	Policy Development	Other Business
   75+	55+	10+	75+	1	1	3	2	38

   The LCF grant was further classified into LCF- Element 1 and LCF- Element 2. Further information regarding this grant can be found here.
3. Technology Transfer Support Fund (TTSF): 1.       The TTSF was awarded to support university technology research that has already produced a prototype or an advanced model (or equivalent). The portfolio of TTSF projects assisted higher education institutions throughout Pakistan in conducting technology transfer-focused research and development. As of now, the research outcomes from these projects is summarized as follows:​

   Journal Publications	Conferences Publications	Patents	Events	Spinoffs	Awards/Recognitions	Tech Partnerships	Policy Development	Revenue (Rs. In millions)	Investments Rs. (in millions)
   50+	25+	8+	25+	2	8	15+	7	5+	14+​

   TTSF projects supported creating marketable products or services with positive cash flow. For more information about TTSF grants, please visit here.
4. Innovator Seed Fund (ISF): The Innovator Seed Fund (ISF) is a HEDP initiative that was launched with an aim to engage entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to put their business ideas into action. ISF provided early-stage startups with a package of support and seed funding through HEC-recognized Business Incubation Centers (BICs) at universities. An overall summary of outcomes till date, from ISF is given as follows: 

   Jobs created	Patents	Customer Traction	Revenue generated Rs. (in millions)	Further investments Rs. (in millions)
   100+	2	50,000+	235+	60+

   n call 1, 15 startups ups were awarded with the ISF grant. Notable startups from these are VisionRD, Oxbridge and Boltay Huroof.  In call 2, a total of 28 startups were awarded, out of which Awaz AI, My Impact Meter and Newvative were the standout performers. Find more information regarding ISF grants on HEC's website here.
5. Rapid Research Grant (RRG): The COVID-19 RAPID Research and Innovation Initiative (RRII) invited researchers to apply for funding through the RAPID Research and Innovation mechanism, which allowed HEC to receive and review proposals dealing with topics and issues of extreme urgency in terms of availability or access to data, facilities, or specialized equipment, as well as quick-response research on COVID-19. These were special purpose projects were also effective w.r.t. research and produced outcomes that are tabulated as follows:

   Journal Publications	Conferences Publications	Patents	Events	Spinoffs	Tech Partnerships	Policy Development
   16	6	6	10	1	1	1

   Further detailed information regarding this grant can be viewedhere.
   
6. Rapid Technological Transfer Grant (RTTG): The RAPID Technology Transfer Grant (RTTG) was launched to support university-industry technology transfer of a previously developed an existing prototype or an advanced model (or equivalent). 

   Journal Publications	Conferences Publications	Patents	Events	Awards/Recognitions	Tech Partnerships	Policy Development	Investments Rs. (in millions)
   6	2	4	4	1	2	1	1+​

   Find more information regarding RTTG grants on HEC's website here.
7. ​Center of Excellence (CoE): The Center of Excellence (CoE) Grants are one of the key elements of the Higher Education Development in Pakistan (HEDP) project supported by the World Bank and implemented by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan. The CoE Grants were open to all Centers (list attached under  Appendix 1 established under various Parliamentary Acts of Centers of Excellence, the Centers of Excellence established through university statutes, US-Pak Centers of Advanced Studies by HEC and USAID, and National Centers established through PSDP. Both individual CoEs and (preferably) consortia led by a CoE (with other CoEs or academic institutions, public sector departments and industries) were encouraged to apply for these CoE Grants. 

   Journal Publications	Conferences Publications	Patents	Events	Spinoffs	Awards/Recognitions	Tech Partnerships
   12+	5+	1	3	2	3	4

   You can find further detailed information regarding this grant here.​
   

Sustainibility Plan for C1

HEC via HEDP has awarded a total of 142 grants under this component during project life and is constantly evaluating the outcomes achieved using the Research Grants Management System (RGMS). However, as the project is in its last year, HEC, in collaboration with the World Bank team, has developed a sustainability plan for these initiatives so that these efforts will be sustained using recurring government funds. The plan also briefly touches upon the policy, technical, financial and systems related capabilities of HEC to continue these initiatives on its own. The plan can be downloaded by clicking here.​​

For detailed information on all of the grants supported and awarded by HEDP, visit ​here.