Funding for Future

Why in News?

• Recently, the Union Cabinet approved the National Research Foundation (NRF) Bill 2023 with the provision to set up NRF - one of the major recommendations of the NEP-2020.
• The objective of NRF as an apex body is to provide high-level strategic direction to scientific research in the country. 

 

National Education Policy (NEP-2020)

• An eight-member committee was formed in 2017 to draft a national education policy with K Kasturirangan, a space scientist, as chairman.
• The committee’s recommendations were published as National Education Policy 2020 (NEP-2020). 

 

Key Recommendations of NEP-2020

• The report highlighted the problems in the higher education system such as:
  • The rigid boundaries of disciplines and fields.
  • Thousands of stand-alone institutions.
  • Absence of research at most universities and colleges.
  • And the lack of a transparent and competitive peer-reviewed research funding system.
• One of the major recommendations of NEP-2020 was the establishment of a NRF to manage a competitive grant system for R&D in universities and institutes involved with higher education.

 

National Research Foundation (NRF)

• As per the recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP), NRF will be established at a total estimated cost of₹50,000 crore from 2023-28.
  • The government will contribute ₹10,000 crore over five years and close to ₹36,000 crore is expected to come from the private sector(as investments into research).
• The DST (Department of Science and Technology) would be an “administrative” department of NRF that would be governed by a Governing Board.
  • The Prime Minister will be the ex-officio Presidentof the Board and the Union Minister of Science & Technology and Union Minister of Education will be the ex-officio Vice-Presidents.
  • The Governing Board will also consist of eminent researchers and professionals across disciplines.
• NRF’s functioning will be governed by an Executive Councilchaired by the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.

 

Objectives of the Proposed NRF

• To Foster a Culture of Innovation: NRF will seed, grow, and promote research and development (R&D) and foster a culture of innovation throughout Indian universities, colleges, institutions, and R&D laboratories.
• To Focus on Need-Based Research: NRF will bring focus on need-based research and help support research in the fields of natural sciences, engineering and technology, environmental and earth sciences, and social sciences.
• To Promote Greater Funding from Private Sector
  • NRF will ensure that scientific research is conducted and funded equitably and greater participation from the private sector.
  • Currently, eminent institutions like the IITs and IISc get a bulk of research funding but State universities get very little (~10%) of the research funds.
• To Forge Effective Collaborations: NRF will forge collaborations among the industry, academia, and government departments and research institutions.
• To Formulate an Interface Mechanism: It will create an interface mechanism for participation and contribution of industries and State governments in addition to the scientific and line Ministries.
• To Focus on Creating Policy Framework: It will focus on creating a policy framework and putting in place regulatory processes that can encourage collaboration and increased spending by the industry on R&D.

 

Present Structure of Government Funding for R&D

• Currently, government funding for R&D is being spent in two modes- core grants and extramural grants. Most of the expenditure is through core grants.
• In the FY 2016-17 as per “Research and Development Statistics 2019-20 by DST” Rs 42,074 crore was spent by the Central government on R&D.
• The three major recipients of the funding — DRDO (31.8 per cent), DoS (19.1 per cent), and DAE (11.3 per cent) almost completely work with core grants.
• In 2016-17, around Rs 2,454 crore (5.8 per cent of the total expenditure on R&D) was spent on extramural grants to fund around 4,711 projects.
  • This small amount served the R&D aspirations of the central universities, state universities including agricultural universities, colleges, deemed universities, institutions of national importance like IISc and IITs, and even the national laboratories.
• India is spending too little on R&D - only 0.65 per cent of our GDP (0.41 per cent by the public and 0.24 per cent by private funding) - much lower than those being made by the developed and newly emerged economies of East Asia (more than 2 per cent of the GDP). 

 

Reason Why India Lags Behind in Funding on R&D

• Low investment by the corporate sector: While the corporate sector accounts for about two-thirds of gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) in leading economies, its share in India is just 37%.
• Hurdles and Delays in the Distribution of Funds
  • Dealing with R&D through a competitive grant system requires an ability to handle a large number of projects, running into thousands, in a timely and fair manner.
  • The timely release of funding from the government to the implementing agency, and onward to the investigators, is extremely critical.
• Plagued Extramural System Run by DST-SERB (Science and Engineering Research Board)
  • The decline in expenditure by various S&T departments in the Covid year — 2020-21 — was understandable, but the underutilisation of funds in 2021-22 has been a self-inflicted tragedy.
  • A major reason for this dislocation was the insistence of the Ministry of Finance for an immediate switch to single treasury accounts. The S&T organisations or the universities/institutions were clueless about how it would operate.

 

Why Setting Up NRF is a Momentous Step?

• India needs a strong competitive grant system as has been proposed by NEP-2020. The number of institutes/universities/medical schools has increased significantly.
• A competitive grant system provides the necessary leeway to accelerate research in new and emerging areas where interdisciplinarity is critical.
• It can be used for collaborative work among institutions, between institutions and industry, and collaborations across the countries.

 

What should be Government’s Strategy to make NRF a success?

• Discussions on Suggestions Made by Academies
  • Academies dealing with science, technology, engineering, medicine, and agriculture submitted a report to the Central government in 2022 which contained some pertinent suggestions to improve our R&D ecosystem.
  • These suggestions need to be discussed more widely within the scientific community along with a discussion on the procedural changes that will make the NRF-run competitive grant system a grand success.
• Effective Mechanism of Managing Projects and Grants
  • The first task of NRF administration should be to implement a time-bound, ICT-based system for managing the projects and disbursing a grant of Rs 3,000 crore in the launch year of NRF, hopefully 2023-24.
  • As for garnering Rs 36,000 crore from non-government sources, it will indeed be an astounding development for R&D in the country if it can be managed.

 

Conclusion

• R&D in frontier areas is key to India’s ambition to grow as an economic and tech superpower. The NRF is the instrument to prepare our individuals and institutions for that future-ready task.
• The NRF’s vision provides a chance of course correction and opportunity to compete in genuine innovation.

 

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Q1) What is the extramural research scheme?

Extramural Research (EMR) funding scheme is of Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) under the Ministry of Science & Technology to academic institutions, research laboratories and other R&D organisations to carry out basic research in all frontier areas of Science and Engineering. The scheme provides core research support to active researchers to undertake research and development in frontier areas of Science and Engineering.

 

Q2) What is SERB?

The Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) is a statutory body established through an Act of Parliament. Supporting basic research in emerging areas of Science & Engineering is the primary and distinctive mandate of the Board. SERB aims to build up the best management systems which would match the best global practices in the area of promotion and funding of basic research.

 

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Source: The Indian Express