Sponsored research up 300% in 5 years, IIT-Delhi now eyes more

NEW DELHI: After having achieved a nearly 300% growth in terms of revenue in industry sponsored research in the past five years, the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D) is eyeing even better returns from its ‘industry day’ this year.
On September 21, IIT-D will open up its facilities for the industry to take stock of the work happening in the institute. The events will be based on five themes: Clean energy for sustainable economy, medical technologies, environment; emerging nano and advanced material; and Make in India.The institute will also promote its PhD students for placements on that day. The research scholars will showcase their work to the industry participants who will conduct interviews.
The number of industry sponsored projects has doubled at the institute since 2014. From 164 industry-sponsored projects worth Rs 87.1 crore in 2014-15, the number grew to 317 worth Rs 347.52 crore in 2018-19. The highest revenue from sponsored research was recorded in 2017-18, which was worth Rs 417.19 crore.
IIT-D director V Ramgopal Rao said they were pushing for more industry-sponsored research so that there is direct benefit for the public.
IIT-D plans to set up research parks at three campuses
I IT-D has planned to set up three research parks on the main campus, Sonipat and Jhajjar to propel design and development of advanced technologies, incubate more startups and promote impactful industry collaborations.
“IIT Delhi is actively working towards catalysing industry-academia collaborations with primary focus being the need for strengthening a talented network to serve an innovation-hungry global marketplace. We have been working with our corporate partners for years. In 2018-19 alone, we worked on more than 1,000 sponsored consultancy and research projects worth over 390 crores,” said professor Anurag Rathore, dean, corporate relations, IIT-D.
The Institute of Eminence (IoE) tag has also helped.
Rao said, “We have been making a conscious effort to help the industry know about our research work and laboratories. Also, efforts are being made to find more and more sponsored projects for faculty members. The IoE status has helped us in our endeavours as only three IITs are having this tagso far. In terms of research impact, we are in top 100 globally.”
“The industry often doesn’t know what is happening in academic. And the academics think that the industry is low tech. We want to understand the industry requirements, and also let them know what we are doing,” Rao said.