Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) has launched a ‘Knowledge Forum’ comprising researchers and their guides to scale up patent filing.
The move comes after the varsity found that the filing of patents among the faculty members and researchers on the campus was sluggish and required a massive push. The forum will meet on the first Wednesday of every month.
The initiative is part of the Inter-university Centre for Intellectual Property Rights Studies of Cusat, which aims at demystifying the process of patent application.
“To begin with, the knowledge forum has nearly 50 members. They will present new research findings and discuss inter-disciplinary subjects in the meeting. The team will be expanded in the coming months by adding more researchers,” said J. Letha, Vice Chancellor. Only two patent filings were made in the last academic year (in Marine Sciences).
'Target levels must go up'
The target levels have to go up to match the growth in patent filing achieved by nationally-reputed higher educational institutions, she said.
“A resolution will soon come up in the academic council recommending that a patent filing could be considered equivalent to a research publication. Our focus is on promoting patent filing in inter-disciplinary areas. The forum will evolve groups that would work specifically in inter-disciplinary areas,” Dr. Letha said. The varsity has also decided to give specific targets to newly-recruited faculty members on getting projects funded by various external agencies.
The Vice Chancellor said that a meeting of the nearly 40 faculty members recruited recently would be held soon to chalk out a detailed plan.
Each faculty member would have to start working on bagging new projects and consultancy work.
They would also initiate industry linkages and try to sign MoUs with the organisations, she said.
