Maximizing and Optimizing Research and Innovation

-- By Team INVICTUSShivam Chawla

Ishan Sinha

Sushrut Sood

Anand Mohan

Ashish Somvanshi

How do we provide financial security,

healthy lifestyle, and attractive growth

prospects?

How to encourage undergraduate and

post graduate students to enter the field of

research? How do we make it a viable career

prospect?

How to maximize the efficiency of research

professionals currently employed by the government and private agencies?

How to reduce red tapes, latency,

procedure hassles, and losses.

How to ensure sustained funding for

viable R&D work undertaken by

professionals and students? How to

ensure percolation of funds to where they are needed most?

Ensuring these projects find proper funding and facilities for fabrication, prototype development and analysis by making industries stakeholders in their development.

Identification of innovation, talent and outstanding projects

undertaken by college students.

Supportive infrastructure, both

economic and material.

Plugging the brain drain, better international

exposure for our best institutes and research centers; bringing them at par through better administration, fund

allocation and cutting latencies.

Identification of reasons for hesitance in joining the field of research. Why are regular jobs more attractive? How

do we bring R&D at par economically and

professionally to other salaried jobs?

The Primary Questions

Promoting, filtering and assimilation of viable student research and bringing them into the market. Bring undergrads, postgrads, doctoral theses under this ambit. Includes college projects, non-conventional modes of research work.

Emphasis on encouraging students to join a career inresearch and development. Encouraging them througheconomic and infrastructural security, career scope,knowledge and resource sharing, industrial interaction.

Promotion of Entrepreneurial Ventures by Scientistsby Easy Movement of Scientists across Organisations

This implies the movement of a scientist from :• one institute to another or from one laboratory to another • a government-run laboratory to R&D organisations in the industrial sector.

It aims to motivate them to share their expertise across organisations by providing appropriate compensation and relocation allowance.

Why is research output low? Is it a viable career option?

The

Issu

es

Economic insecurity in research; both professional and personal.Non-uniform allocation of funds; poor percolation of funds

Absence of a centralized system of knowledge sharing and research tracking; limited resource sharing

Inefficient industry-institute linkage, poor cooperation and collaboration.

Infrastructure, state-of-the-art equipment and labs,

access to knowledge network.

Elimination of redundant methodology, updating courses, teaching styles that promote innovation and problem solving.

Interest generation, channelisation of talent towards research, filtering of useful research undertakings of students.

Visible reasons for scientists not opting for commercialisation of their innovations, even if they possess the business acumen:

•Commercialisation not considered a part of a scientist's duty and sometimes viewed as a distraction from his/her work.

•Non-availability of attractive profit-sharing mechanisms between laboratories and scientists.

• Lack of structured arrangements for a scientist to be the CEO of his technology venture, as well as hold his/her post in the research laboratory

To counter this, the following points may be proposed:

Proper job security should be ensured to scientists willing to try their hands at commercialisation of any technology, in case of failure of venture.

Every laboratory should have some funds at their disposal to help commercialise their respective ventures with ease. Also, there should be an agreement to financially compensate the scientist for his/her efforts and keep him/her motivated.

The laboratory should ask for profits only after a stipulated time of incubation, so as to allow the venture to reach a stage at which it can sustain without much help.

As innovation in India is still in its nascent stage,

80 percent of the domestic R&D is undertaken by the public sector,

while the remaining is

funded by private enterprises.

Early-stage financing can be increased by addressing the following issues on the supply side:

• ·Lack of adequate expertise among venture capitalists.• ·Difficulty in attracting experience professionals in early-stage fund management• ·Inability to channelize domestic market liquidity into early stage funding.• ·Inadequate legal, regulatory and tax environment.

On the supply side, the following issues needs to be addressed:• ·Lack of skill sets in sales, marketing and financial planning in Indian

entrepreneurs.• ·The profitable/high ROI deals are limited in the Indian environment.

Patents filing and Development Expenditure

Source: UNESCO and WIPO statistics database.

INDIA

The facts and figures

COUNTRY

Resident Filings over R&D Expenditure (million $)

• Increase in government funding from the current 0.9% of GDP

• Incentives, sops and compensations for research candidates.

• Better research facilities and equipment to be set up in various research facilities.

• More tax breaks and subsidies setup to Industrial research facilities along with setting up of more SEZ’s.

• Increase in Grants to Public and Private research institutes.

• Increase in foreign collaborations.

• Scrutiny of research implications and potential for earning and corresponding distribution of resources .

Establishing foreign tie ups for developments that may be possible on the research being carried out.

Government Agency being set up for research progress assessment and investigation of rightful usage of funds.

Promoting Industrial investment with a stake in the output of the research set up.Monitored by Government organizations set up specifically for the task.

First Stage Second Stage Third Stage

How do we meet our infrastructure needs?

• Starts by exchange of resources in the form of industry supported centers, technology & infrastructure transfer.

• This relationship captured is services and infrastructure.

Stage 1

Institute- industry interaction

• Interaction moves from just resource sharing to knowledge sharing, faculty is actively involved with industry.

• This relationship is captured by faculty and governance.

Stage 2

Faculty -industry interaction

Addressing Industry-Institute Linkages

Industrial mentorship and overseeing of ongoing research at undergrad and postgraduate level.

Involvement of industries in setting up sophisticated experimental apparatus in colleges through collaboration; enables to fabricate, test and analyze prototypes.

Providing grants to the industry by government, proportional to the number of student research projects undertaken for mentorship. Significant incentives.

Practical Industry based labs in a minimum of two semesters in nearby industry.

Training sessions and workshops organized by educational institutions for students and industry personnel on topics related to the advance developments in the industry.

Industry representation and participation onthe governing board.Preference to faculty with industry experienceand linkages.

Pro-active involvement of industry members inmodification of syllabi and courses undertaken;guest lectures.

Active involvement of alumni of institutesthrough alumni networks, in the designing ofcourses, based upon their experience in theirline of work.

Channelizing government funds more effectively into R&D, through established channels of infrastructure, and with perks for all parties involved.

Concerned industrial mentor gets stake in intellectual and patent rights of each successful project; owns first refusal right for further research on the project or marketing.

Research at institute level is problem oriented, relevant and assimilated quicker into the system.

IMPACTSSOLUTIONS

Source: NSTMIS

%

Curriculum

Hesitant departure from classical subjects and redundant methodology

Problem Proposed solution

Poor design of course. Participation of industry in course design.

Faculty and experts in emerging areas of research are scarce.

Seminars and training programmes for faculty .

Lack of correspondingamendments in curriculum compared to the latest, advance areas of research.

Joint courses among colleges, along with resource and knowledge sharing.

Less emphasis on interdisciplinary skill development.

Courses involving latest technology, and focused towards innovation and design to be introduced in curriculum.

Outdated methodology of Research.

Multi facility resource centre setup as joint venture of industry & academic institutions.

• 60% of the institutes have undertaken no curriculum amendments based on industry inputs .

Differences

• Differences in research objectives between Industry and academia, usually not fruitful for industry to collaborate.

Quality Enhancement and knowledge up gradation through Continuing Education in Distance Mode, under professional guides (professors, industry leaders of corresponding professions).

Lack of awareness about IPR, why rights must be protected, its implications and judicial mechanisms.

Poor enforcement of IPR laws.

Poor design; lots of loopholes.

Judicial issues in proving ownership of intellectual property upon theft.

Need for more number of

competent patent authorities(more regional offices)

Latency, pendency, viability,

stockpiling of patents.

Lengthy and time-taking patent filing procedure.

1. Severe rules regarding cross checking and

originality of research.

3. Patents allowed only for significant difference In outcomes/ observation/ result from prior research.

2. Verification of filed patents and mentorship by professors

of premier educational institutes in vicinity appointed

as nodal officers.

4. Access to research papers through a central national server, with credible ownership details.

6. Online, centralised system for privately filing date-stamped ongoing research accessible only to

owner(sharable) and later used as judicial record. Free for all, simple registration using standard ID cards.

5. Advertising and awareness programmes.

• Pro-active attitude towards safeguard and backup of intellectual property.

• Awareness regarding IPR; the need and measures to safeguard it. Provides a security net against theft and eases judicial procedures.

• Elimination of bogus research; encourages genuine research and provides a safety net.

• Easier patent filing and verification process; faster, more transparent; eliminates latency and red tapes.

HOW TO PROTECT YOUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY?

Regarding patents

ISSUES

A centralized system for monitoring ongoing research P R O B L E M S

Need for a trusted, updated information centre about ongoing research.

Lack of interaction between researchers working in similar or related fields.

Lack of funding opportunity, resources and challenges.

Students do not have the proper knowledge of the problem which industries are actually facing.

Application of server:

Cross verification of new entry

Updating (If found eligible)

Maintenance

Action procedure of server

Indexing

Data hosting

Monitoring

Data Actuation

• Online and centralized system for private filing of filing date stamped ongoing research.

• Accessible only to owner(sharable) and later used as judicial record.

• Access to research papers through a central server, severe rules regarding cross checking and originality of research.

• Patents allowed only for significant difference in outcomes/observation/result from previous research.

• Can act as channels of addressing grievances.

• One click access to present research progress on particular topic from various research labs.

• Prominent subjective comments from academic and industry are compiled and presented in the form of single document.

Infrastructure

Financial Security for people undertaking

research.

Incentives for people who complete their

research successfully.

Increase in industrial participation for a stake in the result of research.

Better equipment leading to more research in earlier inaccessible

fields.

Intellectual Rights

Awareness towards need to protect intellectual property, need and methods to do so.

Easier to protect intellectual property; implements means to uphold rights in a court of law and establish ownership.

Makes viable research lucrative, safe.

Elimination of bogus research; encourages genuine research and provides a safety net

Easier patent filing and verification process; faster,

more transparent; eliminates latency and red tapes.

Departure From Old Methodology

Course planning based on industrial feedback; promotes innovation on

the lines of current pressing challenges.

Courses updates to include latest

advancements, making student research a viable alternative to industrial

research.

Centralized System to Track Ongoing

Research

Access to detailed and exhaustive network of

research papers; topic-wise indexed and stored centrally.

Making information readily available, exhaustive,

inclusive, open source, available in the public

domain through a central system.

Verification of filed patents, elimination of bogus

patents, establishment of an inclusive system that

involves not only patent officials, but also professors,

subject experts.

Improved Industrial Linkages

Easier access to, and more availability of

central and industry-sourced funding.

Knowledge and resource sharing between

industries and educational institutions; i.e. the researcher and

the customer.

Easier access to, and more availability of

central and industry-sourced funding.

A brief overall overview of where our proposed solutions will take us::

References:

• Report on Survey of Industry-linked Engineering Institutes - by All India Council for

Technical Education and Confederation of Indian Industry (http://tinyurl.com/l8jxavv)

• Report on IIT-Industry Linkage- IIT review 2004(http://tinyurl.com/my7o2lb)

• Report on Evalueserve Study of R&D in India - by British High Commission and Canadian

High Commission, New Delhi(http://tinyurl.com/lsblfz6)

• Academia Industry Interaction Project Report on Study of Bottlenecks in Industry,

Academia and Institution Linkage in Pharmaceutical Sector - by National Science and

Technology Management Information System, Department of Science & Technology,

Government of India(http://tinyurl.com/n86nkeq)

• Research Paper on Trends in Agriculture-Industry Interlinkages in India: Pre and Post-

Reform Scenario – by Dilip Saikia, Institute for Financial Management and Research

(IFMR) (http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/31204)

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