Higher Education Commission (HEC) has invited applications from Pakistan’s faculty members of public and private universities, for funding under the Pak-France PERIDOT Research Programme (Phase XI).
According to the HEC, PERIDOT is the Franco-Pakistani Hubert Curien Partnership (PHC) Programme aimed at providing opportunities for Pakistani and French researchers to interact for executing joint research activities.
The programme is being implemented in Pakistan by HEC and in France, jointly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development (MAEDI) and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MESR).
The objective of this programme is to develop new scientific and technological cooperation between French and Pakistan’s higher education institutions (HEIs) research laboratories by supporting the mobility of researchers from both sides.
The joint research proposals have been invited from Pakistan’s faculty members of public and private universities for mobility grants in three areas including `Sustainable Energy, Environment and Climate Change’, ‘Agriculture, Food Security and Health’ and ‘Entrepreneurship, Humanities and Social Sciences’.
The applications can be submitted to HEC till October 01 through the online portal which is now open for applications, the HEC said.
A joint application (in collaboration with a French faculty member) that has been submitted to Campus France is a mandatory pre-requisite for applying to this grant.
Degree Attestation
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has warned the parents and students that degrees obtained from unapproved university sub-campuses will not be attested by the Commission.
“No university or degree awarding institution is currently permitted to operate through sub-campuses by the HEC under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode”, an official source revealed.
The HEC does not endorse any such proposals due to a range of issues, previously observed in permitted PPP Campuses established by certain public sector universities in Punjab, and subsequently closed, such as academic irregularities and concerns regarding educational quality.
Therefore the students are strongly advised against seeking admission at any campus not listed as recognized on the HEC website.
Degree obtained from unapproved campuses will not be validated by HEC for verification/attestation.
The HEC has also issued an advisory to Government College University Faisalabad, directing the cessation of further admissions in its two sub-campuses in Layyah and Sahiwal, which were authorized operations under the PPP mode until 23-04-2022 and 14-08-2023 respectively.