Pakistan Innovation Foundation is a private-sector driven, publicly supported, non-profit entity created to promote innovation within the private sector but also the broader society.

1. The Pakistan Innovation Foundation1 (PIF)
A Concept Note
By: Athar Osama2, PhD
1) The Rationale
The Pakistan Innovation Foundation (PIF) is being proposed to promote the cause of science and innovation in
Pakistan. In particular, PIF is conceived as an apolitical and non-partisan private-sector driven entity charged to
develop and execute an analytically rigorous, evidence-based, and deeply passionate agenda to promote science,
and science-based innovation and entrepreneurship in the Pakistani society.
The PIF will seek to address a number of cross- cutting themes across a range of different issues that affect
science and innovation in the country in an integrated and holistic manner. These include, among others:
1. Review and overhaul of science and innovation policies, infrastructure, and funding structures within the
country;
2. Seizing the demographic dividend through investments in human capital, including STEM, higher
education, and research capacity;
3. Need for a society-wide campaign to promote a scientific culture that promotes rational and critical
thinking;
4. Re-energizing the country’s science establishment through the creation of a national vision, a social
contract, and mission-driven and goal-oriented research;
5. Creating a playing field and a platform for greater private sector participation in science and innovation
including opening up for private sector participation the as yet inaccessible areas;
Above all, PIF will seek to create a genuine national dialogue on science and innovation across the country
involving key stakeholders across the sectoral divide – such as government, businesses, industry, and academia –
as well as individuals, civil society actors, and political forces of all types and persuasions. Only through an
extensive and structured dialogue could a “social contract” be established between the scientists-innovators and
the citizens-taxpayers and Pakistan could develop a robust policy and culture for science and innovation and hope
to transform itself – in due course – into a knowledge-innovation economy of the 21st century.
Realising the above aspirations will require the efforts of an impartial, methodical, and passionate national
champion for innovation. PIF is being created to fill that void in the Pakistani society.
2) The Objectives
To that end, The PIF will seek to:
1. Develop and execute a programme of awareness activities aimed at highlighting successes and creating
role models for promoting science, technology, and innovation in Pakistani society;
2. Become the lead champion and advocate for innovation through awareness building, agenda setting, and
lobbying across government, academic, and private sectors;
3. Support and carry out a national programme of research and analysis to map innovative trends, identify
gaps, undertake international benchmarking, and develop national best practices in Pakistani science and
innovation landscape;
1
This document is a work in progress and is for the use of the intended recipient(s) only. If you have received this in error,
please notify the sender and delete it. Please refrain from sharing it without the express permission of its author.
2
Dr. Athar Osama is the Country Lead – Pakistan and lead author for Atlas of Islamic World Science and Innovation (AIWSI).
He is also the Founder of Pakistan Research Support Network and Muslim-Science.Com, and Founding Partner and Director
of Technomics International Ltd and Technomics Media Ltd. He can be reached at: fp@technomics-international.com.
© Copyright – Technomics International, 2004-2012 [1]

2. 4. Raise private, public, and donor support for implementing its programmatic agenda by forging
partnerships, bridging the “trust deficit”, creating credible execution capability, inspiring better
performance from existing entities, and setting up thematic innovation centres and demonstration
projects;
5. Convene key stakeholders from private, public, and academic sectors through events, workshops,
training programmes, and conferences to build capacity and create a shared vision for innovation
within the country; and
3) Intended Structure
While the organisation will start by focussing on its Awareness and Advocacy functions, it will seek to create
partnerships with entities inside and outside of Pakistan to achieve the plethora of objectives identified above.
The following is the “intended” organisational structure of PIF to be achieved within a 3-5 years timeframe.
International Advisory
Global Alliances
Council (IAC)
Pakistan Innovation
Foundation (PIF)
National Innovation
National Partnerships
Advisory Board (NIAB)
Innovation Fellows
PIF Executive Team (fPIF)
Special Initiatives Awareness and Research on Innovation Support Specialist
Advocacy Innovation (Triple Helix) Innovation Centres
University Innovation Thematic Innovation
Research Centres Centres
Figure: “Intended” Organisation Structure of Pakistan Innovation Foundation (PIF)
PIF will execute upon its objectives with the help of a funded Secretariat housing PIF’s Executive Team and a
‘voluntary’ Council of Innovation Fellows elected as Champions of Innovation from across the entire spectrum of
areas of Pakistani society. Three particular elements of this organisational structure merit explanation:
 Research On Innovation – Research on Innovation relates to a centre (or centres) of research on
innovation established at a university (or a network of centres established at a number of universities)
carry out research on innovation happening in Pakistan. By carefully documenting and analyzing
innovation, these centres will contribute towards dissemination, adoption, adaptation, and replication of
innovation across a variety of sectors in Pakistan.
 Innovation Support – Innovation Support Units will be set up across various industry sectors (such as
chemicals, textiles, pharmaceutical, sports goods, engineering, fan manufacturing, etc.) that will involve
stakeholders from across the triple helix (industry-university-government) and will seek to upgrade
innovative capacity across these sectors through creation of innovation roadmaps and implementation of
innovation projects. It is expected that these units will through the value of their services create their own
constituency within due-course and will become sustainable through funding by relevant industry players.
© Copyright – Technomics International, 2004-2012 [2]

3.  Specialist Innovation Centres – In due course, PIF will also seek to establish dedicated innovation centres
in a few strategic areas such as climate change, “bottom of the pyramid” innovation, etc. where such
capacity already does not exist or is sub-critical and PIF’s intervention will build critical capacity and likely
to deliver an impact.
In the initial year(s), though, PIF will primarily focus its energies on awareness building, advocacy, and fundraising
to position itself to implement more substantive initiatives in subsequent years.
4) Strategic Partnerships and Alliances
PIF is essentially a thought leadership and collaborative platform that will create and broker partnerships
between the triple helix to support innovation within the society. To that end, it will seek to establish
partnerships with entities such PBC, HEC, MOITT, FPCCI, APTMA, CSF, UNDP, UNIDO, OPEN, TiE, MIT EFP,
Chambers of Commerce and Trade Bodies, donor community, and universities and research institutions, etc.
A strategic partnership with PIF will create a “win-win” scenario that will allow its partners to position themselves
as a progressive force for innovation and modernisation in Pakistan.
The proposed strategic partnership will commit Partners to:
 To lend their name and credibility to PIF’s broader agenda and to its programmes on either on a blanket
or “case-by-case” basis;
 Provide guidance and advice – as members of the Advisory Board of the PIF – on an ongoing basis as well
as on specific programmes;
 To support PIF’s efforts to raise funding for its programmes and activities by making introduction to and
convincing their memberships and affiliated organisations to become partners and sponsors of PIF
programmes;
 To support an innovation agenda among its own member companies (and beyond) as a means to create
role-models for Pakistani businesses to emulate;
In addition to Strategic Partners, individual organisations will be able to contribute and benefit from PIF
programmes through Sponsorships. PIF also hopes to create an a super structure that will allow interested
individuals to engage with its programmes and activities in various capacities such as “Fellows”, “Associates”, and
“Supporters” thus moving the cause of innovation forward in Pakistan.
5) The Way Forward
PIF will spend its formative year creating a credible platform and execution capability for follow-on growth,
launching and disseminating the ideas and ideals about its core-objectives, building partnerships and alliances
with key stakeholders, and working with government, universities, and private sector to promote a national
innovation agenda. In the longer-run (3-5 year timeframe), PIF seeks to create a self-sustaining virtuous cycle of
innovation support within Pakistani society in which various actors see value – and are willing to pay – for the
critical service that it delivers. This would ensure that innovation becomes a mainstream profit-enhancing activity
thus opening it up for private sector participation.
The first year’s plan of activities would include a series of low cost but high impact activities designed to build
initial credibility with stakeholders. This could be achieved through mix of voluntary and funded support. It is my
belief that quite a lot can be achieved through minimal funding for centralised initiatives to be generated through
local partners and sponsorships. This will establish a track record and a credible capability to deliver which could
then become the basis for a fundraising activity for a fully developed strategic plan – with a number of
decentralised / distributed initiatives such as Research Centres and Innovation Centres (as outlined in the plan) –
in subsequent years. It is our belief that the PIF will require 3-5 years of external funding support and could
achieve sustainability (through self-generated funds) in due course.
© Copyright – Technomics International, 2004-2012 [3]