Research institutes need financial autonomy: Sujana

Hyderabad: Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Y Sujana Chowdary urged the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CISR) institutes to attain financial autonomy and become self sufficient.

Sujana, in his maiden visit after assuming charge of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) on Friday, said that research institutions should tap the corporate sector for funds and unlock value from Intellectual Property Rights they have created to attain financial autonomy.

“I would like to recommend to the central government that all these institutions should become autonomous and self sufficient. Today these institutions are dependent on the central government funds. If these institutions are made financially autonomous they can excel better,” the minister said.

The minister further said that he wanted to see whether there were any bottlenecks or anomalies to reduce red-tapism to support every scientist and also organisations.Chowdary said that there has been huge potential in the institutes and these institutes have been contributed to humankind and nation.

The minister informed that he had directed directors of CSIR institutes to prepare five year vision document.

“Every year the institutes would make next five year plan by reviewing what they have achieved in the previous year. This will help successors of the institute to know what had happened in the past and for mid-course correction if need be,” the minister said.

When asked about his plans for improving research activity, the minister said that he had gone through past minutes of the meeting. “If I feel I can learn from my predecessors for improving the institutes I would definitely call on them,” he said.

To a question on new research institutes in Andhra Pradesh the minister said that research activity in all the states across the country should improve. “My idea is to setup research institutions across the country in every state and improve research,” he said.

Speaking about improving research across the country, the minister said that more incubation centres in colleges and universities would be encouraged. “Encouraging the setup of more incubation centres in colleges would attract students to take up science,” the minister felt.

"We want to compete with international universities. There are a few institutions in India which are of global standard level; we have to increase (the number of) such institutes and also learn from them," Chowdary said.