Six institutes of the state have the eligibility for the Centre’s ‘Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC)’ to collaborate with the best institutions in the world for research and international exposure. A total of 254 Indian institutes and 478 top ranked global institutes have been identified for the programme.
These institutes are IIT Bhubaneswar, NIT Rourkela, KIIT, Siksha O Anusandhan (SOA), Xavier University and CV Raman College of Engineering. It was listed in the SPARC portal launched by Prakash Javadekar, minister of human resources development (HRD), on Thursday.
The scheme proposes visits and long-term stay of top international faculty or researchers in Indian institutions to pursue teaching and research and visits by Indian students for training and experimentation in premier laboratories of the world.
It will hold joint development of niche courses, world-class books and monographs, translatable patents, demonstrable technologies or action oriented research outcomes and products and organizing high profile annual international conference in India, said MHRD statement. Besides this, this programme will try to improve the international ranking of Indian institutes.
The Centre has sanctioned a total of Rs 418 crore for implementation of the programme up to March 31, 2020. IIT Kharagpur is the national coordinating institute to implement this. IIT Bhubaneswar is helping IIT Kharagpur for co-coordinating all submissions meant for collaborating with Switzerland universities, said IIT Bhubaneswar director R V Rajakumar.
He said his institute has signed memorandum of understandings (MoU) with several universities for research collaborations. “We have even invited foreign faculties to teach our students here. This scheme will help us to take it forward,” he added.
Sasmita Samanta, registrar of the KIIT, said collaboration with the best universities of the world is very important. “If the universities are not collaborating and students are not getting international exposure, the students of the institute may lose their relevance in the market at some point of time. We have already signed 130 MoUs with universities of 58 countries. This programme will help us in our constant endeavor,” she added.
Paul Fernandes, vice chancellor of Xavier University Bhubaneswar (XUB), expressed happiness over the government scheme. “We have not received official letter regarding this, but we are excited to take part in the programme. We have already signed 48 MoUs with other universities for research collaboration,” he added.
Courtesy: TOI