On grant-making, National Research Foundation must not become the go-to funding agency for select institutions

The NSF funds nearly 12,000 competitive awards for research, education and training, and supports about 2,000 colleges, universities, and other institutions. (Representative image)

The Union Cabinet’s recent approval for introducing a bill in Parliament to establish the National Research Foundation (NRF) is a much-desired measure as it sets the wheels in motion for the establishment of a vibrant research ecosystem in a country that aspires to attain the status of a developed nation over the next few decades.

Harnessed effectively, the NRF – which is modelled on the lines of the US National Science Foundation – can contribute immensely to the process of driving innovation-led growth in India, provide a fillip to signature initiatives such as Make in India, Digital India, etc., assist in the realisation of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) goal, and more significantly, act as a major catalyst for improving the quality of life of the country’s 1.4 billion citizens.

But even as we await the start of the NRF’s operations, about which mentions had earlier been made in the National Education Policy, 2020 and the Budget speech of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in February 2021, it would be good if the NRF does not end up being the go-to funding agency for a select group of educational and research institutions.

Broad Base Support

Becoming so could defeat the very purpose of the NRF’s existence by coming in the way of creating a large capacity for research in the country, and may also act as a hindrance to the free flow of knowledge and development of new ideas and approaches that are critical for addressing some of the biggest problems and challenges faced by India today, ranging from climate change and sustainable energy transition on the one hand to making clean drinking water available to all on the other. The NRF choosing to shower grants on a handful of institutions, moreover, could heighten the prospect of brain drain, with some of our best and most promising researchers not affiliated to this select cohort of Indian educational and research institutions deciding to move overseas for carrying out their research activities.

While on capacity creation, it may be relevant to mention here that the number of researchers (in full-time equivalent) per million population in India stood at a mere 262 in 2020-21. In contrast, the United States has slightly over 4,821 and China (excluding the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macao) 1,584.9 researchers per million inhabitants, respectively.

It would be in the fitness of things if the National Research Foundation could ensure that its grants (that are largely expected to fund basic or fundamental research) are broad-based and cover a wide range of educational institutions nationwide. The governing board and the executive council of the NRF could put in place necessary systems and processes to ensure that privately run educational and research institutions (including those that may have not be too many years old) and independent researchers are not deprived of NRF funding or provided limited money if their research proposals deserve generous grant support from the National Research Foundation.

Impose Ceiling

Importantly, the NRF should take care to prevent a situation from evolving where a few largely state-run and/or state-funded autonomous educational institutions (many of which are already comparatively well-endowed) walk away with the bulk of the NRF grants. A ceiling could be imposed on the quantum of grants that would be provided to a specific state-run and/or state-funded autonomous institution over a five-year period.

On the grant-making issue, the National Research Foundation could take a leaf out of the book of the US National Science Foundation (NSF). Given the US federal agency’s long years of experience and understanding of how to evaluate proposals based on merit, the NRF could stand to gain a lot from the learnings of the NSF while evolving the modalities of its functioning on the ground. In an average year, the NSF funds nearly 12,000 competitive awards for research, education and training, and supports about 2,000 colleges, universities, and other institutions and nearly 318,000 researchers, entrepreneurs, students and teachers.

Drawing inspiration from the best practices of the US National Science Foundation could also help the NRF come up with its own set of best practices that are suited to local realities. Having a global role model in mind at the start of its journey, moreover, could benefit the NRF in terms of being able to chalk out a clear trajectory of the direction it wants to move in so that the potential gains to the country could accrue more quickly.

For a country like India with an impatiently optimistic population, the NRF brings with it the promise of a better tomorrow. The NRF living up to its billing would make it the perfect story and one would hope that the organisation would do everything it can to emerge as a standard-bearer for change.

Sumali Moitra is a current affairs commentator. Views expressed are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication. Twitter: @sumalimoitra.