NUST sets up country’s first patent wall

Wall part of innovation programme of HEC

In a bid to promote innovation, the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) has set up the country’s first patent wall.

The wall was inaugurated by NUST Rector Lieutenant  General (retired)Naweed Zaman, inaugurated the wall at the NUST Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Patent walls are established at universities all over the world to recognise the significant contributions of the varsity’s inventors thus highlighting their technological achievements and motivating the budding scientists and entrepreneurs to tread the path of invention-led careers, he said.

NUST students have applied for 114 local and foreign patents of which 33 have been approved. The university, Lt Gen Zaman said, was encouraging its researchers to adopt the culture of “patenting before publication” to enhance the university and the country’s Innovation Index.

The move also follows an incentive programme from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) which encourages varsities to file patents in exchange for financial and technological support.

The HEC, in collaboration with Intellectual Property Organization (IPO) Pakistan, recently approved Technology and Innovation Support Centres (TISC) at 34 universities across the country to facilitate researchers and inventors in their invention pursuits.

The NUST rector said that the pursuit of innovation was listed under the Sustainable Development Goal-9 which aims to support domestic technology development, research and innovation in developing countries, including by ensuring a conducive policy environment for, inter alia, industrial diversification and value addition to commodities.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2017.