Driven by its vision to become a leader in technology education and a centre for creativity and innovation, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) has always placed strong emphasis on research. However, in the first few years the priority was on developing the campus and the academic programmes. The focus was very much on teaching and learning. It was only after physical development was completed and the academic programmes put in place that UTP began to concentrate on research in earnest.

As was the case for the academic programmes, UTP embarked on its research journey with a Research and Development (R&D) master plan study, which was undertaken in 2002, followed by a Transformation Plan in 2009. The latter refocused UTP’s research goals and set it on course to become a world-class research university.

In a short span of time, the university has undertaken extensive research activities in collaboration with PETRONAS and other institutions and industries locally and abroad focusing on a few key areas pertinent to the oil and gas sector, as well as biomedicine and automotive to name a few. The university has participated in various local and global exhibitions, and its researchers have won various medals and awards for their projects.

In recognition of its research, development and commercialisation efforts, in 2015 UTP was awarded a six-star rating by the Malaysian Research Assessment Instrument (MyRA) – the first private and a non- research university in the country to receive this accolade. It was also the first time that the Ministry of Higher Education awarded such a rating to universities.