Updated on: Tuesday, January 17, 2012
To boost research in technical institutes that benefit corporates too, the AICTE is finalising a programme that will enable industry to set up research centres in campuses where both teachers and students will be engaged for project work.
About 50 top institutes will be identified where the research centre could be set up, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) chairman S S Mantha said.
"We are creating some methodology and setting some parameters on which 50 top institutions will be selected in the AICTE space. Among these 50 institutes, we will fund some and some funding will come from industry (for the research work)," he said.
Under the partnership plan, the institute will provide support infrastructure and space to corporates to set up the research centres.
"The initiative is a win-win situation for all. Industry will get land, good industry links, conduct research, have teachers and best potential students. They will get students to work on these projects. The institutes, on their part, will gain on the research front through this. Teachers will get to work on contemporary projects and students can also participate," he said.
While several established institutes have dedicated industry-institute partnership cells to promote R&D activities, the move from AICTE is expected to give a boost to increased research activities in campuses and concretise a relationship that hitherto have been exercised on a limited scale.
Some of the prestigious institutes such as the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore are already reaping benefit from closer industry-institute collaboration on research work.
Major government organisations and PSUs are also increasingly eyeing to tap the available talent in campuses for conducting R&D activities, an area which is yet to realise its true potential in the country.