Odisha govt hikes seed funding amount for research from 5 lakh to 7 lakh

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BHUBANESWAR: The state government has been offering seed funding to young faculty members under the ‘Odisha University Research and Innovation Incentivisation Plan (OURIIP)’ to carry out innovative and quality research works. From this year, the government will provide Rs 7 lakh as seed funding to selected researchers instead of the existing Rs 5 lakh.
Sources from the Odisha state higher education council (OSHEC), which is implementing the OURIIP, said Rs 5 lakh was not sufficient for the researchers to undertake two-year rigorous research works. “After going through the plea of the researchers and reviewing their request, the state government has hiked the seed funding amount,” said an official of the council.
According to the plan, any faculty member (below 45 years of age) with a PhD degree and working in regular capacity in a state public university and college (government and aided) under the higher education department or the skill development and technical education department can apply for seed funding with an appropriate and innovative research proposal.
The seed funding scheme will expect the concerned faculty to produce about two research publications (at least one in the top indexed journals) per year. They will also be expected to write and secure funded research projects from national agencies towards the end of the two-year period, said the official sources.
Meanwhile, the OSHEC has sought applications from young faculty members of different state public universities and colleges (government and aided) to carry out research by getting seed funding from the state government. Each year 40 faculties will be provided with such funding. Last date is June 30.
“We will scrutinize and review the research proposals and select the best of them. We will select 40 innovative research proposals and award them with seed funding,” said Asoka Kumar Das, vice chairman of OSHEC.
The council has also invited applications for ‘Research Fellowship-2022’ from the candidates (below 35 years of age) who have qualified the national eligibility test (NET) of different government agencies including the university grants commission (UGC) on or before 2019. Last date to apply for the fellowship is June 30.
The selected candidates will get financial assistance of Rs 15,000 per month with a contingency of Rs 25,000 per year for the subjects having laboratory work and Rs 15,000 per month for the subjects without laboratory work. The number of fellowships in each subject is limited to five.