HEC, CAB agree to promote access to agri, bioscience resources

Islamabad:The Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan and the CAB International have signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to cooperate for implementation, distribution, adoption and development of educational resources in Pakistan within the domains of agriculture and biosciences.

Executive Director HEC Dr. Zia Ul Qayyum and Senior Regional Director (Asia) CABI Dr. Babar E. Bajwa signed the LoI. Advisor HEC Global Engagement Awais Ahmed, Director General HEC Research & Innovation Division Hazrat Bilal, Director (R&I) Noshaba Awais, Managing Director National Academy of Higher Education (NAHE) Noor Amna Malik, Deputy Director Business Development Dr. Sabyan Faris Honey, and other senior officers from both sides attended the ceremony.

Under the LoI, the two sides will collaborate for integration of CABI’s knowledge resources that are made available for free in Pakistan into Pakistan’s higher education institutions’ curricula and library catalogues. They will also promote CABI Academy’s free digital learning courses to learners in higher education, establish connections between CABI and pertinent agriculture universities and research centres, and carry out needs assessment to identify skills and knowledge gaps for Pakistan.

The partners will jointly work on co-creation and co-fundraising for the development of learning resources in climate smart agriculture (Climate Smart Agriculture Compendium) and food security, and development of bespoke CABI Academy digital learning products. In addition, they will put their efforts together for evaluation of impact from learning products on student outcomes and facilitation for researchers and scientists in Pakistan’s higher education sector to publish in CABI’s scientific journals for global dissemination.

Addressing the signing ceremony, Dr. Zia Ul Qayyum termed the collaboration between HEC and CABI a need of the hour to further research initiatives in the areas of agriculture and biosciences. “I am of a firm belief that sharing knowledge brings diversity,” he stated. He hoped that the proposed joint endeavours for exploitation of educational resources and opportunities will strengthen the efforts for promoting a research culture in Pakistan. He maintained that the two entities will jointly work out to plan productive activities for mutual benefit in the future. Dr. Babar Bajwa shed light on CABI and its scope of work around the world. He said CABI is an international, not-for-profit organisation with 48 member countries. “Through this collaboration, researchers will have unprecedented access to CABI's distinguished platform, allowing them to publish their research on CABI's esteemed publishing platforms. Access to CABI's digital tools will also play a crucial role in bridging the gap between academic knowledge and real-world application in the agriculture sector,” he underlined.

In her opening remarks earlier, Noshaba Awais shared the background of collaboration between HEC and CABI. She said the purpose of this LoI is to record the understanding between the parties concerning areas of common organisational interest and direction.