BU to form special cell to improve research output

A high-powered Research Advisory Committee formed by Bangalore University (BU) to look into improving the varsity’s research output has suggested forming a Research Administration Cell.

The cell will be a nodal centre for all research-related activities at the university and will be steered by a Research Advisory Board headed by the vice-chancellor and consist of external experts.

“The cell will streamline the entire process of how research will be carried out at the university. The recommendations will have to be passed by the university’s syndicate before they are implemented,” Vice-Chancellor B Thimme Gowda said.

Among other recommendations are simplifying the procedure of giving grants and passing bills to get things moving faster, Gowda added. The report was submitted to Gowda on August 25. He assured the committee’s members that the recommendations would be implemented.

 The committee was headed by Prof K Siddappa, former BU vice-chancellor, and other noted academicians like Prof Vasudeva K Aatre, former Director General, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), former director of NAAC Prof H A Ranganath and Prof R S Deshpande, former director, Institute of Social and Economic Change, to name a few. The committee was formed with the aim of creating an environment for research programmes undertaken by the faculty, departments and interdisciplinary groups, and suggesting measures to improve the administrative system to handle the research projects efficiency.

It conducted six meetings with the BU faculty, principal investigators and co-ordinators of research projects, chairpersons of various departments and administrative staff involved in handling research-related files.

After an appraisal of the entire research programme at BU, the committee prepared a report and made specific recommendations along with guidelines to improve the research mechanism, said a statement from the university.