A delegation from IBA’s Centre for Entrepreneurial Development, Innovation and Research, comprising Director Lalarukh Ejaz, Associate Director Muhammad Hassan Khan and Senior Manager Nimra Kamran, visited Lahore University of Management Sciences to exchange insights on research management, entrepreneurship, innovation and commercialization. The visit brought together two of Pakistan’s leading academic institutions to compare notes on how research driven ideas can be more effectively guided toward practical, real world impact.

The delegation engaged with Muhammad Faisal, Head of the Office of Research, along with Muhammad Shehryar Shahid and Muhammad Abdur Rahman Malik, both Associate Professors at the Suleman Dawood School of Business, with Malik also serving as Associate Dean of Research. The discussion drew on the host institution’s experience across research governance and entrepreneurship support, giving the visiting CEDIR team direct exposure to how a peer institution structures its own research to commercialization pipeline.

Discussions spanned the full research lifecycle, including grants and post award management, ethics and institutional review board processes, incubation, mentoring, prototyping, investor readiness, corporate innovation and the broader pathways connecting research to market. The breadth of topics covered reflects the complexity involved in moving an idea from an academic research finding to a commercially viable product or venture, an area where universities across Pakistan are increasingly looking to formalize their internal processes and institutional support systems.

The exchange is expected to inform CEDIR’s own approach to research governance, faculty and student entrepreneurship, commercialization strategy and industry collaboration going forward. By learning directly from LUMS’s experience in these areas, IBA CEDIR aims to strengthen its own frameworks for supporting researchers and student entrepreneurs as they move their work from the lab or classroom into the market.

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