<p>The Government of India’s decision to establish the Research Development and Innovation Fund (RDIF) under the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) marks a historic inflection point in India’s scientific journey. With a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore to be deployed over six years, the RDIF is far more than another funding scheme – it signals the country’s determination to de-risk private investment in research and innovation, and to position India among the top five nations in frontier technologies within the coming decade. But money alone does not make innovation. The challenge is to convert this funding moment into a deep-science transformation – to build an ecosystem that can translate India’s expanding research base into usable technologies, new industries, and global competitiveness.</p>.<p>India today spends just 0.64 per cent of its GDP on R&D, and the private sector contributes only 36.4 per cent of that. In advanced economies, the share of private investment in research routinely exceeds 70 per cent. The RDIF explicitly seeks to correct this imbalance by “de-risking” corporate participation in R&D through co-funding, fiscal incentives, and strategic partnerships. Yet, the success of this initiative will depend on more than capital allocation; it will hinge on our ability to build institutional translational capacity.</p>.Infosys Science Foundation announces winners of Infosys Prize 2025.<p>Three global blueprints show us how. Each underscores a vital truth: innovation succeeds when discovery and deployment are structurally connected.</p>.<p>The Belfer study makes an uncomfortable observation: across the world, even top universities produce enormous scientific knowledge, but little of it translates into practical technologies. The gap – the “valley of death” – lies between TRL 2 (proof of principle) and TRL 6 (validated prototype). Most academic research stops well before that bridge is crossed. India, too, faces this missing middle. Our labs teem with creative talent, yet few discoveries evolve into products, patents, or ventures. What is needed is a translational infrastructure – proof-of-concept (PoC) funds, entrepreneur-in-residence programmes, and early engagement with industry – that can push science from curiosity to commercial readiness. The RDIF can serve as the backbone of such a system if it explicitly earmarks a part of its corpus for university-based translational accelerators.</p>.<p>RISE Europe’s Sciencepreneurship Playbook examines how European universities created “lab-to-market” cultures by re-engineering incentives, not just budgets. Faculty are encouraged to form spinouts. Research groups are aligned with industry clusters. Translational Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – not just publication counts – are used to evaluate performance. Most importantly, universities build shared testbeds and invite corporate partners to co-locate on campus. If India’s RDI framework is to catalyse private participation, co-location and co-creation must replace transactional collaborations. Industry should not merely sponsor research; it should work alongside researchers from the outset.</p>.<p>Imagine if every RDIF-supported university established an Industry Translation Council, composed of R&D heads from the top 20 companies in its region. Such councils could guide PoC investments, open testbeds, and serve as early customers for lab-developed technologies. That is how public money crowds in private innovation. The US National Centre for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) offers a less glamorous but critical insight: successful translation depends on process rigour. NCATS argues that reproducibility, milestone tracking, and cross-disciplinary teams are essential to avoid waste and accelerate impact. In India, where research often operates in silos, this is a wake-up call. RDIF funding must come with translational performance dashboards – tracking cycle times, success probabilities, and readiness levels.</p>.<p>The government has rightly declared that India aims to be among the top three to five nations in five to ten key technologies. The following stand out as deep-science frontiers where India can lead if the RDIF catalyses coordinated public-private investment: (1) Semiconductors and Electronics Manufacturing, (2) AI, Robotics, and Advanced Computing, (3) Green Hydrogen and Sustainable Energy Materials, (4) Life Sciences and Precision Health, and (5) Advanced Materials, Quantum Technologies, and Space Systems.</p>.<p><strong>Measuring outcomes anew</strong></p>.<p>To truly transform India’s research landscape, universities must evolve from knowledge producers to impact platforms. This means three structural shifts: (1) Dedicated translational units – each research university should host a “Sciencepreneurship Studio” with PoC funding, IP management support, and access to industry mentors; (2) Joint R&D labs – universities and corporates should operate shared laboratories with co-funded researchers and open IP models; and (3) Founder-friendly policies – faculty should be allowed sabbaticals to launch spinouts; IP ownership should be equitably shared; venture participation should be legitimised as an academic outcome. Private industry must seize this opportunity.</p>.<p>The government’s de-risking signal is clear: for every rupee invested in national R&D, private capital will be matched and protected through public support. But this should not become another CSR token. Companies must view R&D partnerships as strategic assets – ways to build proprietary technology, secure supply chains, and achieve global competitiveness. Corporate venture arms, R&D consortia, and innovation challenges under the RDIF umbrella can accelerate this shift.</p>.<p>India’s innovation problem is not one of talent or ideas; it is one of translation and trust. Researchers rarely trust the private sector to value science; industry doubts academia’s speed or reliability. We must redefine success. Instead of measuring “how much we spent,” we must measure “how far ideas travelled.” These are the metrics of a confident, innovation-driven nation. The RDIF represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity. With Rs 1 lakh crore at stake, India can finally align its research ecosystem with its economic ambitions. But to do so, we must move from funding research to translating research; from grant disbursement to outcome orchestration. If we combine Belfer’s entrepreneurial model, RISE Europe’s ecosystem pragmatism, and NCATS’s process discipline, and weave them into the RDIF’s fabric, we can create a powerful national translational engine.</p>.<p>This is India’s deep science moment, which must become a movement where every rupee of research leads to innovation, every innovation leads to industry, and every industry contributes to national self-reliance. Only then will Viksit Bharat be not just a slogan, but a scientifically grounded, innovation-powered reality.</p>.<p><em>(The writer is Director, School of Social Sciences, Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences)</em></p><p><em>Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.</em></p>
<p>The Government of India’s decision to establish the Research Development and Innovation Fund (RDIF) under the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) marks a historic inflection point in India’s scientific journey. With a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore to be deployed over six years, the RDIF is far more than another funding scheme – it signals the country’s determination to de-risk private investment in research and innovation, and to position India among the top five nations in frontier technologies within the coming decade. But money alone does not make innovation. The challenge is to convert this funding moment into a deep-science transformation – to build an ecosystem that can translate India’s expanding research base into usable technologies, new industries, and global competitiveness.</p>.<p>India today spends just 0.64 per cent of its GDP on R&D, and the private sector contributes only 36.4 per cent of that. In advanced economies, the share of private investment in research routinely exceeds 70 per cent. The RDIF explicitly seeks to correct this imbalance by “de-risking” corporate participation in R&D through co-funding, fiscal incentives, and strategic partnerships. Yet, the success of this initiative will depend on more than capital allocation; it will hinge on our ability to build institutional translational capacity.</p>.Infosys Science Foundation announces winners of Infosys Prize 2025.<p>Three global blueprints show us how. Each underscores a vital truth: innovation succeeds when discovery and deployment are structurally connected.</p>.<p>The Belfer study makes an uncomfortable observation: across the world, even top universities produce enormous scientific knowledge, but little of it translates into practical technologies. The gap – the “valley of death” – lies between TRL 2 (proof of principle) and TRL 6 (validated prototype). Most academic research stops well before that bridge is crossed. India, too, faces this missing middle. Our labs teem with creative talent, yet few discoveries evolve into products, patents, or ventures. What is needed is a translational infrastructure – proof-of-concept (PoC) funds, entrepreneur-in-residence programmes, and early engagement with industry – that can push science from curiosity to commercial readiness. The RDIF can serve as the backbone of such a system if it explicitly earmarks a part of its corpus for university-based translational accelerators.</p>.<p>RISE Europe’s Sciencepreneurship Playbook examines how European universities created “lab-to-market” cultures by re-engineering incentives, not just budgets. Faculty are encouraged to form spinouts. Research groups are aligned with industry clusters. Translational Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – not just publication counts – are used to evaluate performance. Most importantly, universities build shared testbeds and invite corporate partners to co-locate on campus. If India’s RDI framework is to catalyse private participation, co-location and co-creation must replace transactional collaborations. Industry should not merely sponsor research; it should work alongside researchers from the outset.</p>.<p>Imagine if every RDIF-supported university established an Industry Translation Council, composed of R&D heads from the top 20 companies in its region. Such councils could guide PoC investments, open testbeds, and serve as early customers for lab-developed technologies. That is how public money crowds in private innovation. The US National Centre for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) offers a less glamorous but critical insight: successful translation depends on process rigour. NCATS argues that reproducibility, milestone tracking, and cross-disciplinary teams are essential to avoid waste and accelerate impact. In India, where research often operates in silos, this is a wake-up call. RDIF funding must come with translational performance dashboards – tracking cycle times, success probabilities, and readiness levels.</p>.<p>The government has rightly declared that India aims to be among the top three to five nations in five to ten key technologies. The following stand out as deep-science frontiers where India can lead if the RDIF catalyses coordinated public-private investment: (1) Semiconductors and Electronics Manufacturing, (2) AI, Robotics, and Advanced Computing, (3) Green Hydrogen and Sustainable Energy Materials, (4) Life Sciences and Precision Health, and (5) Advanced Materials, Quantum Technologies, and Space Systems.</p>.<p><strong>Measuring outcomes anew</strong></p>.<p>To truly transform India’s research landscape, universities must evolve from knowledge producers to impact platforms. This means three structural shifts: (1) Dedicated translational units – each research university should host a “Sciencepreneurship Studio” with PoC funding, IP management support, and access to industry mentors; (2) Joint R&D labs – universities and corporates should operate shared laboratories with co-funded researchers and open IP models; and (3) Founder-friendly policies – faculty should be allowed sabbaticals to launch spinouts; IP ownership should be equitably shared; venture participation should be legitimised as an academic outcome. Private industry must seize this opportunity.</p>.<p>The government’s de-risking signal is clear: for every rupee invested in national R&D, private capital will be matched and protected through public support. But this should not become another CSR token. Companies must view R&D partnerships as strategic assets – ways to build proprietary technology, secure supply chains, and achieve global competitiveness. Corporate venture arms, R&D consortia, and innovation challenges under the RDIF umbrella can accelerate this shift.</p>.<p>India’s innovation problem is not one of talent or ideas; it is one of translation and trust. Researchers rarely trust the private sector to value science; industry doubts academia’s speed or reliability. We must redefine success. Instead of measuring “how much we spent,” we must measure “how far ideas travelled.” These are the metrics of a confident, innovation-driven nation. The RDIF represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity. With Rs 1 lakh crore at stake, India can finally align its research ecosystem with its economic ambitions. But to do so, we must move from funding research to translating research; from grant disbursement to outcome orchestration. If we combine Belfer’s entrepreneurial model, RISE Europe’s ecosystem pragmatism, and NCATS’s process discipline, and weave them into the RDIF’s fabric, we can create a powerful national translational engine.</p>.<p>This is India’s deep science moment, which must become a movement where every rupee of research leads to innovation, every innovation leads to industry, and every industry contributes to national self-reliance. Only then will Viksit Bharat be not just a slogan, but a scientifically grounded, innovation-powered reality.</p>.<p><em>(The writer is Director, School of Social Sciences, Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences)</em></p><p><em>Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.</em></p>
