PUTRAJAYA, 3 Oct 2012 – Eight of UKM’s research products were among 24 pitched for selection by a panel of evaluators and potential investors at a Lab2Market Commercialisation programme (L2M) at the Prime Minister Office here today.

The other 16 products were from another three research universities, USM, UPM and UTM. The L2M programme was  jointly organised by the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM), Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd (a funding agency under the Ministry of Finance), Technology Park Malaysia (TPM) and supported by PEMANDU, the Performance Management & Delivery Unit of the PM’s Department.

The programme brought researchers, innovators, industry players and investors together with government agencies, NGOs and industry players aimed at accelerating returns of investment and income for institutions of higher learning and research institutions by enhancing the commercialisation of their research findings and innovations that have high market potential.

It is part of the Entry Point Project (EPP) 9 on Advance Engineering and Science and Innovation Cluster under the Education National Key Economic Area (NKEA) of the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).

The programme aims at increasing university revenues while creating new job opportunities in an innovation driven economy through commercialisation of R&D.

The products from UKM were selected for the final pitching after undergoing a screening and mentoring by TIE Malaysia Chapter (TiE Malaysia), an international non-profit entrepreneurship network organisation entrusted by PEMANDU as the facilitator of the programme.

UKM researchers and start-up CEOs who participated in the final pitching were:

Prof Dato’ Dr Kamaruzzaman Sopian (Non-Toxic Solar Cells),

Prof Ir Dato’ Dr Hassan Basri (Intelligent Waste Sorting System for Recycling),

Prof Dr Aminah Abdullah (Antioxidant Monitoring Kit),

Dr Gan Kok Beng (Non-Invasive Optical Fetal Heart Rate Detection System),

Associate Prof Dr Rokiah Omar (KieVision),

Associate Prof Khairiah Hj Badri and Encik Mohd Fairuz Mat Isa (Polyols),

Dr Kalaivani (Vascular Risk Assessment and Management Screening Instrument),

Dr Ahmed Mahir and Cik Sharifah Nur Rahimah Syed Alias (Cilibangi) and

Associate Prof Dr Mohammad Tariqul Islam (Dual band RFID Reader Antenna).

 
The panel evaluating the projects consists of representatives from MOHE, Ministry of Education (MOE), Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries (MoA), AIM, Cradle, TPM, Microsoft Malaysia, Maxis, Mr Ali Zareth (a US based private venture capitalist) and three representatives from QuestMark Capital Management (a venture capital company associated with MAVCAP).

Based on the feedback received from the evaluation panel, most of the UKM R&D products presented at the pitching session have high potential for commercialisation.

“These R&D products have gained high interest from the investors and most probably they will pick up a couple of the technologies which are ready for commercialisation” said Zalina Abdul Aziz of TiE Malaysia.

“Most of the technologies have commercial potentials, therefore there is a strong possibility that Cradle will recommend most of them for Pre-Seed and Seed Fund to bringing these technologies to market through University Cradle Investment Programme (U-CIP Catalysis) and CIP500 funding package” said Syazwany Ismail of Cradle.

The pitching effort is part of PIK’s initiatives in bringing UKM’s research findings to the marketplace through collaboration with stakeholders and industry.

PIK is optimistic of securing between RM4 to RM8 million in commercialisation fund from the funding agencies and venture capital as the outcome of the L2M programme .