Many CSIR centre heads lack own labs

RTI reply shows 50% have no external grants

New Delhi: A significant number of directors in the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research laboratories don’t have their own dedicated laboratory space and external grants that scientists require to remain active in research and train students, reveal a bunch of RTI responses, even though the opinion is divided on whether it is desirable for directors to pursue an independent and active research career.

DH is in exclusive possession of RTI replies from 22 of the 37 CSIR laboratories on the research agenda of their directors, disclosing that more than 50 per cent of the directors of responding labs don’t have any external grants and nearly half of them don’t have any dedicated laboratory space.

Also around 33 per cent of directors of the responding laboratories don’t have any research student working under him/her. As many as 15 laboratories did not respond to the RTI queries despite multiple reminders in the last eight months.

While a section of scientists within the CSIR system is critical of directors without a research agenda, there are others who note that CSIR laboratories should focus on solving national problems. Individual research agenda, they say, is more befitting for university professors.

The critics, on the other hand, argue that directors being the top-most leaders in a CSIR laboratory, should inspire junior scientists and students by their own research, rather than focusing on administrative work and providing an overall supervision.

“A leader is supposed to set an example to inspire others to achieve excellence. But it doesn’t seem to be the case for many directors of CSIR institutes,” a senior CSIR scientist, who doesn’t want to be identified, told DH.

Directors in research-focused organisations played a key role in steering the ship towards innovation and success, they said, adding that personal research initiatives could keep directors intellectually stimulated, contributing to the organisation’s goals and productivity.

A former director of a prominent CSIR laboratory, however, differs. “A CSIR lab has to prioritise national interests. It should not be driven by individual research programmes, but the combined effort of the whole institute – similar to the Chandrayaan-3 success, which was a collective effort,” he said.

Asked to comment, CSIR director general N Kalaiselvi told DH that a director could command respect from his/her colleagues if he/she had all the requisite leadership qualities in promoting the laboratory’s scientific research and technology development.

“If the director is engaged majorly in laboratory research, it helps. But if that research is at the expense of overall functioning, management and operations of the institute, it will adversely affect the institute. Hence, a balance is required,” she added.

The critics point out that CSIR laboratories are now a part of the AcSIR (Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research) system in which scientists are assigned the job of doing full-time research, and train world class future researchers through the AcSIR system. “Are some of the CSIR directors playing such a role as mentor,” wondered a scientist.

More than a decade ago, the Union government created the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, riding piggyback on the facilities and manpower at the 37 premier laboratories spread across the country. AcSIR is now India’s biggest institution for doctoral education with 577 PhDs awarded in 2022. More than 7,000 PhD students are registered with the AcSIR.

AcSIR was expected to mentor young researchers and create the highest quality personnel with cross-disciplinary knowledge, aiming to provide leaders in the field of science and technology.

CSIR officials explained that some of the directors might have come from other institutes and continued to maintain their laboratories in the parent organisations. Also, there are directors who came from the industry and may not be having an individual laboratory.

“One should not look at the director of a lab only as a captain of a cricket or football team but more as a coach-cum-manager who organises the work, coordinates functions, smoothens processes, drives team performance, and, in all, gets the organisation to the next level,” noted Kalaiselvi.