Scientific Research Needs Focused Funding

Context: Understanding challenges in India’s scientific establishment and scope of recently launched National Research Foundation (NRF).

Issues with India’s scientific establishment

• Bureaucratic culture: Earlier, a distinct set of scientific departments for space, atomic energy, industrial research was created to insulate scientific research from bureaucratic functioning.
  • However, over the years, the number of scientific departments ballooned, and they have got subsumed in the dominant bureaucratic culture.
• Highly centralised: Resulting in delays in release of research funds, grants, fellowships etc.
• Promotion of research in government labs at the cost of universities: which were leading centres of research and knowledge creation before 1947.
• Undermined autonomy: by nurturing another mechanism called the office of the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA). (although advisory, lines between advice and implementation often get blurred)
  • For E.g. During the pandemic, the PSA was allocated Rs 100 crore for vaccine development from the PM- CARES Fund (which is a private entity), while vaccine development is under the purview of DBT.

About NRF: Announced in Budget 2021 to ‘fund, coordinate and promote research’; Proposed an outlay of Rs 50,000 crore over five years.

• Objective: To boost the research eco-system in identified thrust areas ‘without duplication of effort and expenditure’.
• Part of New Education Policy-2020: It will provide a ‘reliable base of merit-based but equitable peer-reviewed research funding’ to state universities and other public institutions.

Associated issues

• No extra fund: NRF will be funded from budgets of existing funding bodies like the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT).
• No autonomy: NRF will be managed by the Ministry of Education. NRF will serve as a parallel structure for research funding whose core mandate is not scientific research.
  • E.g. In 2008, the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) (a statutory body) was established with similar objectives but functions under the DST.

Way forward

• Expand existing mechanism:
  • SERB could be given additional funds for supporting research in universities.
  • Strengthen the Promotion of University Research and Scientific Excellence (PURSE) under DST.
  • For social science research, mechanisms like the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR) could be renewed and adequately funded.
• Ensure autonomy: If an overarching body is to be established, it should be an autonomous entity rather than being attached to any Ministry.
• Expand R&D expenditure: which is stagnating at less than one 1% of GDP.
• Invoke great principles of a decentralised, evidence-informed, bottom-up, experts-driven, and inclusive approach to Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy.