PANAJI
The State government is making a concerted effort to foster a scientific research temper and is banking on a Research Foundation to achieve the goal.
A legislation to set up a Goa State Research Foundation, defining its role and giving it financial muscle, was introduced in the legislature during the monsoon session, envisaging a body with some of the top bureaucrats holding ex-officio positions in the State government in its governing council which will be headed by an exceptional academic with a proven track record in R&D.
The law which is now a property of the House and is expected to be pushed through by the government in the next session provides for the Foundation to be a body corporate having perpetual succession and with a headquarter besides campuses where it deems fit.
Inculcating and promoting a research culture in Goa as also establishing state-of-the-art infrastructure is among the Foundation's prime tasks.
Another task of the Foundation will be to promote high quality knowledge creation and to link academia, government, industry and society.
The Foundation which in its establishment year is proposed to be allocated a budget of Rs 25 crore, will also have the powers to fund competitive, peer-reviewed research across all disciplines.
It will also be tasked to seed, grow, and facilitate research at all academic institutions including schools, higher secondary schools and higher educational institutions as well as fund research infrastructure at individual institutions, and laboratories and other research equipment that can be shared across multiple institutions.
The chairperson of the governing council, a full-time position, shall be either a serving or retired vice chancellor of any Central or State University or
a Director of any national level academic research Institution established by a Central law, or an outstanding academic scholar with a minimum 10 years as a Professor under his belt and at least 15 research publications in any journals listed in UGC's Group II CARE.
The legislation introduced in the Goa legislative assembly also lays down the chairperson's emoluments matching with those of a director of the IIMs or IITs and he or she shall have a tenure of a minimum of three years.
The Foundation will also have a full-time managing director and have on the governing council the Higher Education Secretary to the Goa government, Director of Higher Education, Director of Education, three outstanding academicians in various disciplines, and four persons having outstanding research work in the field of science, technology, social science and humanities, a member each from the research institutes in Goa -- National Institute of Oceanography, National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research and Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute.
The State government will also nominate three eminent persons from industry or various professions.
Government sources said an annual expenditure of around Rs 25 crores is expected in the initial years which would be scaled up once the Foundation finds its feet.
