The National Science and Technology Park welcomed Major General Muhammad Ali Khan, HI(M) (Retired), Pro Rector Planning and Resources at NUST, during a visit to the park’s Islamabad campus. The visit brought the university’s senior planning leadership face to face with the range of programmes NSTP has developed over recent years to support early stage ventures, applied research and the broader push toward technology commercialization in Pakistan.
Engineer Amer Sheikh, Director NSTP, received the Pro Rector and walked him through the park’s innovation ecosystem, covering its incubation programmes, research and development facilities, and the initiatives it runs to help researchers and entrepreneurs move ideas from concept to commercial product. Sheikh was joined by members of his senior leadership team during the visit, including Zayn N. Qureshi, Senior GM Marketing, Usman Ali, GM Projects, and Adil Murtaza, GM Operations, who took part in briefing the visiting delegation on different aspects of the park’s operations.
The visit included a stop at Hatch, NSTP’s pre incubation programme designed to help students take early stage ideas and shape them into viable business concepts before they progress to more formal incubation support. The delegation also visited Rapidev, a resident company at the park working in defence technology, giving the Pro Rector an on ground look at how NSTP hosts ventures operating in specialised and sensitive technology sectors alongside its broader base of startups.
A further stop on the itinerary was the National Centre of Artificial Intelligence at CEMTECH, where researchers showcased ongoing work in advanced technologies and applied research. The centre has positioned itself as one of the more research intensive components of the NSTP ecosystem, working on projects that sit closer to academic and applied research than the commercially oriented startups housed elsewhere in the park. Showing this work to NUST’s planning leadership offered a direct line between the university’s resource planning function and the practical output of research being carried out under its umbrella at the park.
Visits of this kind have become a regular feature of NSTP’s engagement with its parent institution and with other academic and government bodies, allowing the park to demonstrate the breadth of its work across incubation, research and applied technology development. NSTP has continued to position itself as a central node connecting NUST’s academic and research capacity with the commercial startup ecosystem, hosting a mix of pre incubation programmes, resident technology companies and specialised research centres under a single campus. The visit by the Pro Rector adds to a pattern of engagement between NSTP and university leadership aimed at strengthening the link between academic planning and the park’s day to day operations.
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