Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) faculty members have won China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Collaborative Research Grant by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan.
According to details, Dr Shakeel Sadiq Jajja Associate Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management, Suleman Dawood School of Business (SDSB) at LUMS won the grant for CPEC.
Dr Jajja is the Principal Investigator (PI) and the project’s key team members from LUMS are Dr Raja Usman Khalid and Dr Syed Zahoor Hassan. The project’s collaboration is with Zhejiang University’s School of Management from where Dr Yongyi Shou is the Co-PI, who has worked extensively on the BEV related supply chain issues and maintains a thorough understanding of the present status of the BEV industry in the China and how the industry has evolved over time.
The project, “Electrification – A Step Towards Sustainable Mobility in Pakistan” from LUMS has secured an HEC grant under its CPEC- Collaborative Research Grant (CPEC-CRG) initiative. The focus of the project is on uplifting Pakistan’s industry’s Electric Vehicles (EVs) value chain with exploration and dissemination of understanding of new business models and supply chain management related issues and guiding the development of the needed policies and regulatory frameworks. This is planned to be done by “understanding the underlying factors that can trigger the build-up of the ecosystem for the development of manufacturing supply chain and adoption of EVs in developing countries, particularly in Pakistan”.
Talking about his achievement, Dr Jajja said, “All praise for the luxury of time provided at the school to work on research, he also appreciates the ‘trust’ in the faculty to produce high-quality research and the ‘generosity’ of the school’s leadership in terms of financial support through the school’s research fund and the university’s Faculty Initiative Fund and start-up grants, that they can always turn to in case they fall short of funds.”
“When we submitted this project to HEC, we budgeted for more, and what HEC finally approved was less than what we had proposed. At this time the business school was very generous in giving us additional resources from the school’s budget to support this research. So, I think that kind of generosity is what powers this type of research,” added Dr Jajja.
Commenting on the grant, Dr Alnoor Bhimani, Honorary Dean, SDSB said, “The HEC grant will assist the team of researchers from SDSB and Zhejiang to advance an important line of research. EV technology-based transportation is reshaping the world. Pakistan must be part of that conversation and this research will directly speak to supply chain issues and business model enhancement tied to EV. Congratulations to Drs. Shakeel, Usman and Zahoor on undertaking this important research and being awarded this grant.”
n these unprecedented times, it is not only our economy that is faltering, but the entire education process is also in shambles. All local and international examinations have been put on hold and uncertainty and confusion surrounds online classes arranged by higher education institutions (HEIs). 
