PUTRAJAYA, Nov 6 – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) proudly introduced NexScholar, its newest spin-off company leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) to revolutionize Malaysia’s research and innovation ecosystem.
The official launch of NexScholar took place during the Festival of Idea (FOI) 2025, under the initiative MyIDEAS Connect: Collaboration Between Institutions and Product Launch, held on 6 November 2025 at Putra Hall B, Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC). The programme was officiated by Dato’ Dr. Megat Sany Megat Ahmad Supian, Deputy Secretary-General (Policy), Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE), together with Ahmad Rizal Adnan, Deputy Director-General of Higher Education (Academic and Development). Also in attendance were Prof. Dr. Rosli Md Illias, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation), UTM, and Prof. Ts. Dr. Wan Mohd Nasir Wan Kadir, Dean of Faculty of Computing, UTM, who represented the university’s leadership.
Developed under the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) PhDpreneur Programme with a total funding of RM469,376, NexScholar Sdn. Bhd. (202501003772 (1605185-U)) serves as a comprehensive digital platform connecting academicians, researchers, postgraduate students, industries, and government agencies within one integrated AI-driven ecosystem.
The launch also welcomed Anita Adnan, Founder of the Doctorate Support Group (DSG), who attended the event as NexScholar’s strategic partner, highlighting the collaborative spirit between academia and professional research networks.
The funding under this programme is disbursed progressively beginning October 2025, covering a one-year development and commercialization period involving artificial intelligence (AI) integration, technology enhancement, market validation, and industry collaboration to strengthen NexScholar’s position as a national research innovation platform.
According to Dr. Ahmad Najmi Amerhaider Nuar, Chief Executive Office (CEO) cum Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of NexScholar and Senior Lecturer at UTM’s Faculty of Computing, “NexScholar was built to address one of academia’s most persistent challenges — connecting the right minds for impactful collaboration. By integrating AI, Big Data, Digital Twins to mirror and simulate real-world profiles, and RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), we enable researchers, students, and industry players to find opportunities, collaborators, and funding faster and more intelligently.”
Coincidentally, NexScholar’s vision is closely aligned with the MoHE’s Jaringan Pakar MADANI initiative—Focus 2: Academic and Campus Community Excellence—which seeks to consolidate and map national academic expertise through digital platforms. In line with this agenda, NexScholar serves as an AI-powered engine connecting experts, institutions, and industries to enable data-driven collaboration and smarter decision-making.
Led by Dr. Ahmad Najmi, Dr. Seah Choon Sen as Chief Financial Officer, and Dr. Muhammad Aliif Ahmad as Chief Evangelist Officer, the NexScholar leadership team represents UTM’s new generation of technopreneurs driving AI-powered academic innovation and commercialization.
The project also collaborates with DSG, LeadAlways Technologies (M) Sdn. Bhd. and UTM as partners in system development, academic engagement, and technical validation. NexScholar has also been granted the full support of the Faculty of Computing for the proposed project, from planning and development through to deployment and impact assessment.
Dr. Ahmad Najmi added, “Our next phase focuses on national integration through Jaringan Pakar MADANI and regional expansion to Indonesia and China. NexScholar aims to become a regional hub for AI-based academic networking and research analytics — a ‘digital brain’ that maps knowledge, connects people, and empowers decision-making through data.”
By 2026, NexScholar targets to achieve Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 7–8, with pilot institutions onboarded across Malaysia. In the long term, the company plans to build a Sovereign LLM (Large Language Model) for the higher education sector and develop the AI Research Observatory, providing national-level analytics on research performance and emerging fields.
This initiative marks another milestone for UTM in transforming Malaysia’s research landscape through innovation, AI, and collaboration under the Jaringan Pakar MADANI initiative.
