Islamabad, October 25, 2023 — A delegation from UK’s Northern Ireland’s Queen's University Belfast (QUB) visited CUI on October 25, 2023, to explore opportunities for collaboration. The QUB delegation included Professor David Rooney, Dean of Internationalization and Reputation/ Professor of Chemical Engineering in the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and Dr. Wasif Naeem, Director of Internationalization at QUB's School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Science.

The visit commenced with a warm welcome from Dr. Hammad Omer, Head of International Office, CUI, who provided an insightful tour of the campus, highlighting the various academic departments and state-of-the-art facilities, including the Junaid Zaidi Library and its advanced technologies. A formal meeting was held to discuss potential areas of collaboration. Dr. Omer presented an overview of CUI, covering its academic structure, research initiatives, and international recognition.

Dr. Naeem emphasized the need to explore research prospects, opportunities for PhD students, combined funding options, and the potential for a split PhD program. Professor David Rooney introduced QUB, an institution celebrated for its academic excellence and influential research. He emphasized QUB's commitment to internationalization and expressed a strong desire to establish meaningful partnerships with CUI.

Mr. Ali Tawab Baloch, Senior Manager, International Office, suggested focusing on a single, meaningful partnership avenue initially, such as offering scholarships for PhD students to work on collaborative research projects.

Dr. Omer outlined the procedural requirements for establishing MoU between CUI and QUB, suggesting a phased approach that includes data sharing agreements and department-level agreements before formalizing an MoU.

For this, Professor Rooney and Dr. Naeem expressed their commitment to facilitating direct connections among researchers and mapping for collaboration between the two universities. However, the initial phase of collaboration will focus on the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Science at QUB and corresponding faculties at CUI i.e., Information Science and Technology as well as Engineering.