The year 2025 marks the third year of implementation of UMT’s Strategic Plan 2023–2027 (PSUMT5), and through Thrust 4: Excellence in Research and Innovation, activities relating to research, publication, consultancy, and innovation have been strengthened by focusing on empowering research in UMT’s niche areas. One of the plans outlined is the 2024 research empowerment initiative, aimed at enhancing UMT’s research institutes’ capacity to become subject matter experts in niche research at both national and global levels. This is to be carried out through strategies that increase the visibility of UMT research experts at the global level and boost intellectual property and innovation activities. Focus is also given to the agenda of enhancing the quality of high-impact publications and the contribution of research to the community.

The impact of research and innovation excellence initiatives formulated since the UMT Strategic Plan 2018–2022 (PSUMT4) began to show highly encouraging results through the implementation of PSUMT 5 (2023–2027). This ongoing effort bore fruit when UMT MyRA internal audit confirmed the achievement of a 6-star rating in the Malaysia Research Assessment (MyRA) 2024, with the official audit by the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) planned towards the end of 2025.