LAHORE - Government College University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr  Khaleequr Rahman has laid stress on commercialisation of research, saying that research papers shall not stay buried in journals.
He was addressing a meeting of the university’s senior faculty that was aimed at honing research potential of the university. Director Research, Innovation & Commercialization Prof Dr Muhammad Zakria Butt was also present.
Speaking on the occasion, the VC revealed that this year, nine faculty members of GCU including Dean Prof Dr Islam Ullah Khan and Registrar Dr Muhammad Akhyar Farrukh were awarded the prestigious Research Productivity Award (RPA) by the Pakistan Council for Science & Technology (PCST) in recognition of their outstanding research publications, which were published in the international impact factor journals.
He called upon the RPA recipients, which included Prof Dr Ghulam Murtaza, Dr Ahmad Adnan, Prof Dr Hassan Amir Shah, Prof Dr Ather Abbasi, Prof Dr Tamaz Kaladze, Prof Dr Raiz Ahmed and Dr Durre Shahwar, to work on commercialization of their research work in collaboration with university’s research office and Higher Education Commission, so that their hard work could play role in socio-economic development of the country.
The VC also revealed that the university’s Advanced Studies and Research Board had adopted very strict rules to enhance the quality of research done by the scholars for their PhD programme.
He said that the university was giving no relaxation to scholars and that they must have leave from their employer for registration in GCU PhD programme. He said that world over, universities adopt the carrot-and-stick approach with their researchers, and GCU had done the same.
“On one hand, we have slashed the PhD fee by 50 percent and are giving award Rs 100,000 to supervisor for each PhD, but we are not giving relaxation in rules and quality of research,” he added.
He said that the university was also giving research grants to its scholars from its own budget, so that they should produce quality research for the socio-economic development. 
Prof Rahman said that GCU was focusing on applied research, and that’s why their faculty of chemistry and physics departments now had patents. He also appreciated that PCST had also included points for patents in the criteria of Research Productivity Award which was a good omen.
The VC applauded the research work of Registrar Dr Muhammad Akhyar Farrukh, who despite his administrative duties got a very high impact factor and had got an international patent to his credit.