Pakistan has set aside Rs352.5 million for two technology innovation programmes, SPARK and ELEVATE, for the financial year 2026 to 2027. The allocation, disclosed by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication in a reply to the National Assembly, aims to turn university research and startup ideas into products that can be sold, rather than studies that end when a report is filed.
The money will flow through the Research and Development Fund. The ministry stressed that it will not come from the federal budget or the Public Sector Development Programme. That matters because the funding then sits in a dedicated research stream with its own rules, instead of competing directly with roads, schools and other development spending. Proposals will be judged on what they can build, not on which institution asks loudest.
The two programmes cover different stages of the same journey, and that split is the heart of the design. SPARK, the Strategic Program for Advanced Research and Knowledge, supports early-stage work that takes an idea from concept to a working prototype, offering grants of up to Rs100 million per project. ELEVATE, Empowering Late-stage Engineering, Validation and Accelerated Technology, funds the harder second half: taking a technology that already has a prototype through validation, certification and pilot deployment, with grants of up to Rs200 million.
Each programme can award up to 30 grants a year, so as many as 60 projects annually if both run at full capacity, and each project is expected to run for up to 18 months. The ministry’s reply also mentioned the Pakistan Venture Fund, a separate initiative worth $20 million, but the Rs352.5 million is tied specifically to SPARK and ELEVATE. The distinction is worth keeping: a grant pays for research that may not yet earn a return, while a venture fund invests in companies it expects to grow.
The programmes are implemented through Ignite, the National Technology Fund under the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif launched them at the Indus Robotics and Autonomous Systems Expo in Islamabad on July 23, 2026, at the same event where the Pakistan Venture Fund was announced. Ignite has since run awareness sessions, including one with the Higher Education Commission for university leaders, explaining which track fits which project. The choice comes down to maturity: SPARK suits early work that must still prove a concept, while ELEVATE suits work that already has a prototype and needs real-world testing.
That staged approach tackles a familiar weakness. Pakistan’s universities produce talented graduates and interesting papers, yet comparatively few of those ideas become products, companies or exports. The gap between a laboratory result and a market-ready product is where many good ideas stall, too applied for a pure research grant and too early for a commercial investor. Funding the prototype stage and the validation stage separately lets a team cross that gap step by step, instead of jumping from an idea to a business in a single leap.
Eligibility is deliberately broad but anchored in Pakistan. The programmes are open nationwide, and the lead applicant must be a Pakistan-based, legally registered organisation, such as a university, research institution, startup or small or medium enterprise, with a nominated principal investigator. An individual cannot apply alone. ELEVATE projects are expected to be industry-led, often in a consortium with researchers, while SPARK welcomes a wider mix of researchers, institutions and firms, with partners brought in only where they add value.
The first application window for these tracks closed on October 26, 2026, according to programme reporting. The new allocation is therefore best read as funding for the pipeline that window opened, and for later rounds, rather than a fresh call on its own. Those who applied will now watch selection closely, because the scheme’s credibility rests on grants reaching the strongest ideas on merit, and on teams being judged over their 18 months by what they produce: a working prototype, a validated system, intellectual property, or a product ready for the market.
The announcement also comes as Pakistan’s wider startup funding picture shifts. The World Bank has proposed a $50 million package to create a Pakistan Fund of Funds, investing public money in professionally managed venture capital funds to attract private investment, with approval consideration scheduled for March 2027. That proposal is separate from SPARK, ELEVATE and the Pakistan Venture Fund, and it is not yet approved. Still, it points the same way: grants build the pipeline of research-backed products, and venture capital helps the strongest of them grow into real businesses.
Rs352.5 million is modest beside the scale of Pakistan’s economy, and it will not transform the technology sector alone. Its significance lies in the structure around it: two clearly separated tracks, clear funding ceilings, a named implementing body in Ignite, a dedicated funding source, and a companion venture fund for the companies that emerge. If grants are awarded transparently and funded work is held to its promised outcomes, the programme could keep more Pakistani ideas, jobs and exports at home. The next eighteen months, as the first projects run their course, will show whether it does.
