Higher Education Commission. PHOTO: FILE.
The deadline for applying for the Grand Challenge Fund (GCF) is early next month.
This was disclosed as the Higher Education Commission (HEC) on Thursday organised a seminar on the fund, the prize, its direction, specifications of proposals and eligibility criteria.
HEC Research and Development Director-General Dr Zainul Abdin said that the fund aims to spur research in Pakistan’s present and future priority areas for the development of its industry and society.
He maintained that the individual grant value of the fund is between Rs15-Rs225 million. Proposals for GCF have to be submitted by February 7, he stressed.
Dr Abdin added that proposals must be linked to at least one of the strategic priority areas, including food security, water management and sustainability, sustainable energy, sociology and philosophy, development economics, urban planning, climate change and environment, information technology and telecommunication, and innovative governance and reforms.
The purpose is to identify a national problem and solve it.
He further revealed that the GCF requires setting up a consortium of three to four applicants, with at least one applicant from a research-intensive university, cross-disciplinary and relevant complementary scientific expertise, and project participation from industry, public authorities or other relevant organisations.
Once applications are submitted, he explained that a three-stage process is adopted for submission of proposals, including project outline stage, full proposal stage, and presentation to a panel of experts. The maximum project duration of a project will three years, while the expected number of grants per year is 25.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2020.
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