WORKSHOP

A Workshop on Schemes and Grants was organized at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi by The Consortium for Innovation (COIN) on 3rd September 2015 for enabling the colleges to know about disbursal of Govt. grants for academic purposes namely projects, innovations and research & development activities. Prof. (Dr.) H. S. Dua, HOD, Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering and Prof. TPN Singh, Advisor (R&D) attended the workshop from Dronacharya Group of Institutions, Greater Noida. Faculty members from various other colleges were also present. The resource persons were:

1. Prof. S. K. Atreya – IIT, Delhi, Advisor & Mentor, COIN

2. Dr. R Radhakrishnan – President, COIN

3. Mr. Ashutosh K. Agarwal – Secretary, COIN

4. Mr. Sanjay Kumar Jha – Member, COIN

5. Mr. Jayant Kaintura – Head, Learning & Development, Tevatron Technologies

Prof. S. K. Atreya welcomed the participants and explained the concept of launching COIN (The Consortium for Innovation). Innumerable queries were being received on courses in innovation and funding by G.O.I. To meet the challenges of technology diffusion and disruptive innovations need arose for a platform to be formed to address these issues. COIN was formed to bring all aspiring colleges under one umbrella for fruitful symbiosis pertaining to discussions, exchange of ideas, regular meetings and exchange of information with objective of preparing proposals for obtaining grants from various govt. agencies like DST, UGC, AICTE, SERB, and CSIR etc. IIT Delhi earned Rs. 300 crores from projects and research work carried out by obtaining funds from these govt. agencies. International agencies also pour in huge capital for research related work in India. The main sponsors for R&D works are DST, UGC, AICTE and others. 70% of the grant is taken up by Life Sciences, 15% by Computer Science related projects and only 2 to 3% by Hard Core Engineering projects. Most preferred institutions for govt. funding are IISc, IITK, IITB, IITD, Jadhavpur University, BHU and IIT Madras. The key result areas checked by funding agencies are College infrastructure, Quality of faculty, Research papers published, Projects executed, facilities available etc. Following has to be ensured:

1. College will give adequate time for carrying out the activity

2. The research/project work must benefit industry, society and be of use to community

3. College must allow the work to be carried out independently

4. Out-put should be there in terms of research papers, patents etc.

Dr. R. Radhakrishnan dealt with various research and funding schemes available from DST, MSME and DRDO etc. He exhorted the colleges to set up centers of excellence wherein DRDO will give a grant of Rs. 5 crores over a period of 5 years. Highly sought areas for project research are Nano Technology, Sensor Technology, Nano Opto Electronics, Extra Mural research, Solar Energy etc. In the year 2014 - 15, 33 projects worth 7.9 crores were sanctioned. Various schemes were discussed namely S&T infrastructure, Swarn Jayanti Fellowship, Women Scientist Program, Kishore Vigyan Protsahan Yojana, Inspired Fellowship and NSTMIS (National Science & Technology Management Information System).

Mr. Ashutosh Agarwal also gave an insight on the availability of various grants like Tata Innovation Fellowship, Prime Minister Fellowship Scheme for Doctoral Research, IFCPAR (Indo-French Centre for Promotion of Advance Research) and Shastri Research Grant etc.

The guest speaker from industry Mr. Jayant pitched in for his company for funding, developing and commercializing the projects. His company Tevatron Technologies has tie - up with ST Micro Electronics, Greater Noida where in faculty and students can be sent for exposure and industry training.

It was decided to have such workshop at regular intervals. The workshop came to an end at 5:30 pm.