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KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Sep, 2019 ):The Ignite National Technology Fund and Aga Khan University have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly support startups developing innovative ideas in healthcare and biomedicine.

Federal Minister for Information, Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui present on the occasion highlighted the government's role in creating an ecosystem in which innovation can flourish.

"The modern knowledge economy thrives on creativity and the pooling together of expertise from different industries," the minister was quoted to have in a statement issued by AKU.

Dr. Khalid M Siddiqui emphasized that partnerships were an essential tool that bring together the most committed people to tackle pressing problems around them and to explore global trends and opportunities.
Ignite, with connections to Pakistan's Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, supports a national network of incubators across Pakistan that seek to solve local problems and to enable young businesses to target global opportunities in health, education, energy, agriculture, telecommunications, finance and other industries.

The MoU was signed by Ignite CEO Yusuf Hussain and AKU President Firoz Rasul at AKU's Centre for Innovation in Medical Education, home to the its Innovation and Incubation Space.
Ignite's five incubation centres based in Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta and Karachi have provided over 300 startups with essential facilities and expertise alongside access to a network of mentors and investors.

The agreement will see AKU offer its facilities as well as the expertise of its faculty to Ignite's existing and future startups, enabling them to develop meaningful ventures and partnerships in the healthcare sector.
In the long-term, AKU and Ignite will also support one another on establishing a specialized healthcare and biomedicine incubator in the country.

Commenting on the agreement, Yusuf Hussain said this partnership will allow Ignite to address the entire value chain of deep health tech innovation including lab facilities, trials, regulation, incubation, mentorship, and funding with the objective of targeting domestic and foreign markets with world-class Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Internet of Things and other Fourth Industrial Revolution-based products." AKU President Firoz Rasul noted that both organisations have unique strengths that would be of great use to today's entrepreneurs.

Universities are engines of innovation and this partnership will give ambitious innovators access to the expertise they need to develop low-cost, sustainable solutions to today's healthcarechallenges, he said.