A Business Solutions Lab by NUST Business School

Synergy Space—A business solutions lab at the School of Interdisciplinary Engineering & Sciences (SINES) aims to support and add value to the existing innovation ecosystem at SINES and NSTP. Synergy Space connects the research ecosystem to a broader business ecosystem, thereby increasing the chances of successful productization from within the schools. Business Lab will bridge the gap between academia and industry by creating an open innovation channel where university students, faculty, and industry partners can collaborate on real-world business research & innovation challenges. The lab will foster innovation, skill development, and knowledge exchange by providing a structured environment for academic-industry partnerships.

Synergy Space at SINES will also facilitate in-house cross-disciplinary collaboration, driving valuable outcomes and enabling multidisciplinary faculty to connect their research with the business side through training, workshops and custom-designed solutions for research teams.

The objectives of Synergy Space include,

1. Provide an open innovation model for industry partners to source solutions from academia. Synergy Space acts as a Project Marketplace to connect industry and academia. Industry partners share the targeted problems, specifying the goals, required skills, timelines, and deliverables. Synergy Space structures an interdisciplinary team from different schools (Faculty, MS/PhD students) to work on the project. The solutions span various domains such as technology, business, healthcare, sustainability, etc.

2. Offer customised solutions for research teams housed at SINES to understand the business side of the research, engage in sustainable product innovation and commercialization. The trainings can be developed around the following themes;

• Creative Thinking for Problem Solving
• Design Thinking for Product Innovation
• Agile Project Management for Product Development,
• Product Ideation & Validation with Customer Discovery
• Leadership & Team Development
• Emerging technologies & tools in business applications
• Market Research & Competitive Analysis
• Minimum Viable Product (MVP) testing
• Go-to-Market Plan
• Sales & Customer Acquisition
• Operational Planning (Managing logistics, supply chain, and vendors, scaling operations)
• Data Analytics for Research/ Business
• Financial Modelling & Cashflow

3. Conduct research and provide recommendations on regulatory, financial, and strategic policies that enhance product commercialization and market success.