The University Grants Commission (UGC) has launched an initiative to support and foster trans-disciplinary research in Indian institutes and universities. The Scheme for Trans-disciplinary Research for India’s Developing Economy (STRIDE) will fund socially relevant and need-based research projects. The complete details of the scheme will be available on the UGC website on July 8, 2019.
PROJECT-BASED FUNDING
Research proposals under the scheme will be invited online by July 20, 2019 and the funding will be provided after careful evaluation through peer reviews and assessments. “Building a culture of trans-disciplinary research is becoming crucial. It requires investigators to develop concepts and theories that go beyond disciplines. STRIDE is UGC’s flagship scheme to decide the funding for project-based research,” says Bhushan Patwardhan, vice chairman, UGC.
FOCUS ON HUMANITIES
The scheme is divided in three broad components – research capacity building of universities and colleges, social innovation and action research, and research in Humanities and Human Sciences. Disciplines such as Journalism, Law, Indian Knowledge Systems, Liberal Arts, Linguistics and many more, will be eligible for funding under the third component. “There has been limited focus and funding for researches in Humanities. The grant available for the third component is maximum, up to Rs 1 crore for one HEI and up to Rs 5 crore for multi-institutional projects. The scheme can help in restricting saturation in domains such as Science and Technology,” adds Patwardhan.
HELPING HAND FOR COLLEGES
One of the biggest challenges, says Patwardhan, is that majority of research is being conducted at premier institutes, which leads to university level research lagging behind. Along with supporting the research projects, UGC has introduced a provision to identify experts to develop a proposal and provide them with a grant of Rs 2 lakh. “Many investigators are unable to work on their proposals because of lack of fund. STRIDE will be directed at the very base of the pyramid, strengthening the research ecosystem in colleges and state universities,” he adds.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
Quality of researches in India has been under the radar lately and hence, the UGC will be taking steps to promote high-quality researches. “We will follow the list of reputed journals published by the CARE committee and adopt the modifications suggested to maintain the quality of researches in a report by Padmanabhan Balaram, former director of IISc, Bengaluru,” adds Patwardhan.
PROJECT-BASED FUNDING
Research proposals under the scheme will be invited online by July 20, 2019 and the funding will be provided after careful evaluation through peer reviews and assessments. “Building a culture of trans-disciplinary research is becoming crucial. It requires investigators to develop concepts and theories that go beyond disciplines. STRIDE is UGC’s flagship scheme to decide the funding for project-based research,” says Bhushan Patwardhan, vice chairman, UGC.
FOCUS ON HUMANITIES
The scheme is divided in three broad components – research capacity building of universities and colleges, social innovation and action research, and research in Humanities and Human Sciences. Disciplines such as Journalism, Law, Indian Knowledge Systems, Liberal Arts, Linguistics and many more, will be eligible for funding under the third component. “There has been limited focus and funding for researches in Humanities. The grant available for the third component is maximum, up to Rs 1 crore for one HEI and up to Rs 5 crore for multi-institutional projects. The scheme can help in restricting saturation in domains such as Science and Technology,” adds Patwardhan.
HELPING HAND FOR COLLEGES
One of the biggest challenges, says Patwardhan, is that majority of research is being conducted at premier institutes, which leads to university level research lagging behind. Along with supporting the research projects, UGC has introduced a provision to identify experts to develop a proposal and provide them with a grant of Rs 2 lakh. “Many investigators are unable to work on their proposals because of lack of fund. STRIDE will be directed at the very base of the pyramid, strengthening the research ecosystem in colleges and state universities,” he adds.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
Quality of researches in India has been under the radar lately and hence, the UGC will be taking steps to promote high-quality researches. “We will follow the list of reputed journals published by the CARE committee and adopt the modifications suggested to maintain the quality of researches in a report by Padmanabhan Balaram, former director of IISc, Bengaluru,” adds Patwardhan.
No comments:
Post a Comment