Budget 2019: FM Sitharaman proposes to set up National Research Foundation
- National Research Foundation will assimilate the research grants being given by various ministries independent of each other
- Besides providing funding, the draft NEP said NRF will take care of the need to seed, build research capacity in universities and colleges
New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday proposed to establish a National Research Foundation to fund and promote research, a proposal which is likely to have been taken from the draft new education policy already in public domain.
“We propose to establish a National Research Foundation (NRF) to fund, coordinate and promote research in the country. NRF will assimilate the research grants being given by various ministries independent of each other,” the finance minister said in her Budget 2019 speech.
“NRF will ensure that the overall research eco-system in the country is strengthened with focus on identified thrust areas relevant to our national priorities and towards basic science without duplication of effort and expenditure. We would work out a very progressive and research oriented structure for NRF. The funds available with all Ministries will be integrated in NRF. This would be adequately supplemented with additional funds,” she added.
The draft new education policy prepared by a team of nine headed by space scientist K. Kasturirangan and made public on 31 May has said, “We have addressed this critical lacuna in this Policy by introducing, for the very first time a new National Research Foundation (NRF) that will focus on funding research within the education system, primarily at colleges and universities.”
The draft NEP has said the “Foundation will encompass the four broad areas of Sciences, Technology, Social Sciences, and Arts & Humanities. Besides strengthening the presently weak support that subjects such as the Social Sciences and the Humanities receive, NRF will also bring in cohesion among the various research endeavours of multidisciplinary character.”
Besides providing funding, the draft NEP said NRF will take care of the need to seed and build research capacity in universities and colleges through a formal mechanism of mentoring that will be instituted.
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