Researchers and faculty members of Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) who bag research awards and get their papers published in international journals have something to cheer about.
The university has decided to set up a ₹50-lakh corpus fund to encourage researchers to scale up their credentials. Vice Chancellor J. Letha said that five researchers and five faculty members each would be given financial aid. The interest from the corpus fund will be used to provide the assistance, she added.
The corpus fund will be mobilised from the ₹5-crore cash prize won by the university as part of the Chancellor’s Award for the best university in the State for 2016-17. Cusat had secured a score of 499.51 out of 750 to emerge on top of the list.
Faculty members and researchers bagging science awards and getting their papers published in international journals will be given the incentive from the new academic year. The scheme is expected to be a continuous process aimed at supporting outstanding talents on the campus in the field of research on science and technology.
Researchers filing patent applications will also get a boost. Despite its credentials, the university has not been able to scale up the process of filing patent applications for innovations made by its researchers.
A Right to Information application filed by The Hindu in 2016 had revealed that only five patent applications had been filed by faculty members and researchers since 2013. It showed the dismal state of patent filing at the premier science and technology institution.
Dr. Letha said that ₹2.5 crore of the ₹5 crore cash prize would be used to set up a Chancellor’s Chair of Excellence involving three to four departments. “We plan to invite internationally renowned academicians to come and stay on the campus as part of initiatives to be undertaken by the proposed chair. They will be offering short-term courses to researchers and students,” she added.
The university has decided to earmark the remaining ₹2 crore for the construction of a women’s hostel on the main campus. This is part of ongoing efforts to step up infrastructural facilities to girl students.
