LAHORE:The Government College University (GCU) Lahore has made a substantive increase in the research incentives for its faculty, and linked the incentives to the impact factor of the research
The GCU also recommended opening its laboratories/testing facilities for industry, private firms and individuals to generate funds and linkages to the industry. These decisions were taken at the 51st meeting of the University’s Advanced Studies and Research Board (ASRB), which continued for four days on the university’s main campus. GCU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Asghar Zaidi chaired the meeting attended by the senior faculty, Deans, Director Research Dr Faiza Sharif and Registrar Dr Shaukat Ali.
Prof Zaidi told the media that maximum research incentives were increased from Rs10,000 to Rs60,000/- to motivate faculty and staff for their top quality research. However, he said that incentives were reduced to none in faculty of sciences if the research was not linked to impact factor.
“The greater the impact factor of a research paper, the higher will be the incentives,” the vice-chancellor said. He said that GCU had also allowed its faculty and staff to individually undertake consultancy projects for which they would need to pay 20 percent share to the university. “Similarly, we also devised a complete financial framework to extend testing facilities/ services to industry in Pakistan,” he said.
The VC said that the recommendations of GCU-ASRB would be placed before the Syndicate in the upcoming meeting in May for the final approval. The ASRB meeting also approved 46 of 50 titles and synopses of theses for PhD research studies. These proposals included research on “Women harassment at workplaces in Lahore since 2002” and “Green synthesis of nano-bioinsecticides and evaluation of their insecticidal activity”. The meeting also appointed supervisors and panels of examiners for evaluation of theses for PhD.
