'Scientific research has helped development'

School of Life Sciences and Directorate of Research, Manipal University, along with the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance, Government of India, organised a one-day workshop for PhD scholars and young faculty members with the objective of facilitating their easy entry into research environment and to create awareness about varied aspects of scientific research, here recently.

Manipal University vice chancellor H Vinod Bhat emphasised on the importance of such workshops to young researchers.

He said that though India was among the top three fast-growing countries for a number of scientific publications, there was a need for an increase in the number of highly-cited publications.

K Satyamoorthy, director, School of Life Sciences, said that scientific research has helped development. But for early career researchers, understanding different aspects of developing their ideas into palpable work, competing for research funds from agencies, conducting research by following ethics and appropriate norms, and communicating the outcomes appropriately or filing patents could be difficult to cope with. The workshop aimed at addressing these aspects, he said.

The workshop had sessions on research ethics, science communication, manuscript writing, presentation skills, writing grants as well as guidelines on how to prepare CVs, cover letters and for interviews, handled by the experienced personnel from Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance.

It also gave an insight into the fellowship programmes of the agency and tips on skill enhancement and facing interviews.