DRDO, IITs to hold joint research programmes

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is set to establish special cells at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to conduct joint research programmes to help meet the needs of country’s defence, security and industry.

As part of the collaboration, the DRDO, which is facing shortage of manpower, has proposed to extend its facilities to the IIT researchers and create a research centre for academician in each laboratory.

While the DRDO will sponsor research scholarship to Ph D students working on defence related projects, the IITs will recognise the defence research body’s laboratories as research centres for doctoral programs and DRDO scientists as external research supervisors.

The premier technical institutes will also offer adjunct professorship to both serving and retired scientists of DRDO on the recommendation of the defence research body.

A steering committee, set up by the council of IITs to explore potential areas of partnership with the DRDO after its last meeting in January this year, has recently given its nod to the proposals, according to official sources.

To begin with, the proposed collaborative research proposal will be implemented at older IITs.  “It can also be introduced in new IITs later,” sources said.

The panel, headed by Higher Education Secretary Ashok Thakur, has recommended that the IITs can work in “consortium mode” in case of paucity of grants in large scale projects.