Strap: 'Matching the fund' a new scheme started by the Education Department will encourage corporates to focus on funding research projects
Delhi government has decided to invest more in funding research, for state institutions. With a new scheme – 'matching the fund' started by the Education Department, the government will match the fund that institutions generate from either corporate or donations, thus, also encouraging corporate partnerships with the institutions.
This would be the one of the few decisions of the Aam Aadmi Party government in field of higher education in the Capital, as their focus has mostly been on school education so far.
The scheme was announced on Wednesday when Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia directed the Department of Education to make it an incentive scheme for all state universities in Delhi with different terms for grant and non-grant in government-aided institutions.
According to the Education Minister, this would bolster research in different fields like the humanities, arts, business, finance, natural sciences and technology. It was decided after a successful pilot project of the scheme run in Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi (IIIT Delhi) an autonomous research and innovation institute under the Delhi government. The institute raised Rs 15 crore from various corporates.
IIIT- Delhi has raised funds for research in computer science, information technology and several new-age interdisciplinary courses. Various corporations like the Infosys Foundation, Intel, Microsoft and Google have contributed funds. As part of this scheme, the same amount will be matched by the Delhi Government to bolster research and give incentive to corporations to invest in technology research.
"Across the world, a common approach for funding research in universities is to provide research grants through various funding agencies. There are agencies in India to provide funding for research projects but the amount of funds available is not as high as it should be," said an official from Department of Education, Delhi government.
"Even the budget allocated to state universities is very little and the topic of research does not gain any importance in this scenario. Therefore, this matching-the-fund model will work in case of these universities," he added.
The matching grant can be 100 per cent or even more for those universities which receive little budgetary support from the state, and can be lesser for those universities that get good annual budgetary support.
"This approach will not only cover the cost of doing research, but will motivate the state universities to seek funding from agencies and corporations, making them more competitive nationally and globally," the official added.
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