LIRA program spells out the mechanisms for supporting youth-submitted research projects

The Minister of Industry, Hussein Haj Hassan, as chair of the Committee Supervising the Lebanese Industrial Research Achievements Program, LIRA, revealed last Tuesday the new mechanism for funding joint academy-industry research projects. Partaking in the event were the Committee’s two members and chief of the Industrialists’ Association Fadi Gemayeh, as well as the general director of the National Council for Scientific Research Muin Hamzeh. Theses projects will be jointly completed and submitted by the ten universities that are member of the programs and students of the schools of engineering and sciences, and should be of relevance to the Lebanese industry. Haj Hassan added that the agreed mechanisms will enable successful research projects to receive annual financial contributions. The projects shall have the edge in benefiting from the innovation funds launched recently with the support of the Central Bank of Lebanon and which target industries that support the knowledge-based economy.

Furthermore, Hajj Hassan clarified that the LIRA program is ready to fund graduation projects (bachelor degree) or higher education degrees, designed jointly between the university and one industrialist member of the Industrialists Association, with an amount to be determined each year in light of the budget, and with a minimum of three projects for each university member of LIRA program. The request for support should be submitted by both the university and the designated industrialist, provided that the implementation of the project includes an explicit agreement between the industrialist and the university that will include: 1) commitment by the industrialist to finance the balance of the project’s  cost, and extending the required supervision and technical expertise. 2) commitment by the university and the subject professor to carry out the project until its completion, and finally, 3) the project should be feasible and of additional value to the Lebanese industry. (An Nahar, December 23, 2015)