Dedicated Innovation Fund Formed
UGC Urges Tech Translation of Academic Research
- Faculty research grants raised to ten lakh BDT alongside direct student research stipends
- Industry collaboration units planned across all universities over next two years
- Commission establishes national high-tech training institute with 150 crore BDT budget
Bridging pure scientific research with applied market prototypes, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has called for commercializing academic findings into tangible digital products, technology services, and governance frameworks.
The policy declaration was delivered on Monday, September 14, at the Senate Bhaban Auditorium of the University of Dhaka during the Faculty of Social Sciences Dean's Award and Faculty Research Publication ceremony. UGC Member Professor Dr. Abdullah Al-Mamun outlined dynamic structural shifts targeting higher education R&D ecosystems.
"Universities cannot remain restricted to credentialing centers; they must actively engineer solutions to critical socio-economic challenges," Professor Al-Mamun stated. "Academic discoveries must transcend print journals to materialize as deployable technologies, scalable products, consumer services, and evidence-based policy inputs." He revealed that dedicated industry-academia collaboration units will be established across every university within two years, reinforced by a newly established 500 crore BDT innovation seed fund to prepare students as technology founders.
Detailing expanded funding architectures, he noted that individual faculty research grants have been raised from previous thresholds of 260,000–300,000 BDT up to 1,000,000 BDT. Postgraduate students can now directly access research funding for tech monographs, field testing, and applied software development. Full-time doctoral research fellowships expanded from 15 to 100 positions, with targets to reach 500 candidates next year alongside augmented postdoctoral stipends.
To enhance faculty capabilities, a dedicated Higher Education Training Institute is being founded with an initial outlay of 150 crore BDT. Concurrently, a 30 crore BDT internationalization corpus has been mobilized to attract expatriate Bangladeshi scholars into local laboratory instruction.
The assembly conferred academic honors on top-ranking BSS graduates from 2021, 2022, and 2023 cohorts, alongside distinguished faculty publications. Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Planning Dr. Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir joined as chief guest. University of Dhaka Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr. A B M Obaidul Islam, Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Dr. Abdus Salam, and Treasurer Professor Dr. M. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury attended the session presided over by Acting Dean Professor Kazi Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman.
//DBTech/AJR/SE/EIC//
