Three days workshop on “Pedagogic Research: Advancing Research Methods, Analysis & Practices” was hosted by Department of Sociology, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi from Oct 4-6, 2022. It was arranged as the strong support of the partnership with Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU) since PMAS AAUR has signed an MOU with FJWU under the project “Strengthening Teaching and Research Capacity in Pakistani Universities through collaborative partnerships in Social Sciences” under the US-Pakistan University Partnerships Grant Program (UPGP) won by FJWU. It is being administered by USEFP from 2020 to 2023 as a follow-up grant for former partner institutions of the University Partnerships Program.

Under this partnership, focal persons - Ms. Sidra Umar, Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Dr. Aneela Afzal, Associate Professor, Department of Agriculture Extension arranged the workshop at KOICA seminar room. This workshop was attended by faculty members from the faculty of social sciences of three universities - Kohsar University, Murree, Quaid-e- Azam University, Islamabad and PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi.

The resource persons from the Fatima Jinnah Women University trained the faculty members about the advance research methods, analysis and practices with the aim to strengthening the research capacity of faculty members from the faculty of social sciences of the three participant universities.

The workshop was focused on Mixed Method Research and Analysis Techniques, Evidence Based Intervention Research, Grant Writing, Reference Management with Mendeley, Guidelines for Conducting Systematic Review, Opportunistic Research, Ethics in Research and Exploring Implementation Science.

The resource persons for the workshop were Dr. Saima Hamid (Vice Chancellor FJWU), Dr. Aneela Maqsood (Associate Professor, Psychology, FJWU), Dr. Adeela Rehman (Assistant Professor, Sociology FJWU), Dr. Shazia Hashmat (Assistant Professor, Communication and Media, FJWU), Dr. Shaheryar Naveed (Assistant Professor, Public Administration, FJWU). Two session were delivered online by the international speakers on “Global Aspects in Social Sciences” by Dr. Sadaf Sajjad, Adjunct Psychology Professor at Austin Community College, Texas and on “Opportunistic Research” by Dr. Michael Hirsch, Professor of Sociology, Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities - Huston- Tillotson University, Texas.

On the third day of workshop, the faculty members from the participant universities gave their Presentations on Grant Proposal and received valuable suggestions from the resource persons. On the closing ceremony the Prof. Dr. Abdul Saboor, Dean Faculty of Social Sciences appreciated and thanked the resource persons on providing enlightened training to the faculty which would ultimately enhance their research skills. He encouraged this partnership by terming this professional networking as the result of enhancing the social capital. Dr. Aneela Maqsood and Dr. Adeela Rehman thanked the department of Sociology, PMAS AAUR on the partnership in this project and for hosting the workshop at the university. The focal person of this project Ms. Sidra Umar, Lecturer, Department of Sociology highlighted the need of such partnership for enhancing the capacity building and research skills of faculty members especially for newly appointed faculty members. She thanked the Fatima Jinnah Women, Rawalpindi for involving PMAS Arid Agriculture University in this project as a partner institute.