Funded by: DORA (San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment) under the Community Engagement Grant Program 

About the project 

India has a considerably large research community of ministries, scientific  and industrial research organisations; universities, research councils, and autonomous institutions directly dealing with research/funding. The country also boasts of ~0.34 million FTE researchers. The quantum of research undertaken/funded by these institutions are also quite large. Research assessment criteria vary with the type of institutions, research, and the goal of assessment. 

However, like many other countries, research assessment in Indian institutions and funding agencies is currently overly dependent on matrices such as Journal Impact Factor (JIF), h-index, etc. Though started well intended, matrices proliferated to be an abused instrument. Keeping this in view, the proposed project aims to initiate a broader discussion on the framework used by these institutions, their institutional capacities, and strengths and gaps in the existing practices. 

For this purpose, we plan to organise a series of workshops with the major stakeholders of the Indian research ecosystem to understand and deliberate on the strengths and weaknesses of current practices. 

Expected outcome

The workshop outcome will help us better understand the existing practices, how to look beyond the quantitative journal indicator-based metrics, and suggest pathways to make them more effective and inclusive wherever necessary. The project outcome will help the institutions build robust, flexible research assessment frameworks.

For more information, please contact Dr. Momita Koley or Dr. Suchiradipta Bhattacharjee

Higher education institutions play a central role in developing the human, social, and knowledge capital of the STI ecosystems. The Centre’s work on higher education is focused on:

(a) scientometric  studies of publications from Indian institutions with a view to elucidate their research productivity and strengths in different fields of science and technology, and

(b) a study on doctoral education in India whose aim is to assess the level and quality of training received by doctoral students to prepare them for both academic and non-academic careers.

The project on Doctoral Education in India is a multi-institution collaboration led by DST-CPR at IISc, with project investigators drawn from the University of Washington (Prof. Maresi Nerad, who is a visiting professor at our Centre), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (Prof. Neeta Inamdar), Jindal Global University (Prof. Anamika Srivastava), IIM-Ahmedabad (Prof. Devasmita Chakraverty), FLAME University (Prof. Poonam Pandey), and IISc (Prof. T.A. Abinandanan. The project aims at mapping research scholars’ journey through their PhD years to develop a detailed understanding of their motivation, reasons for choosing an institution / department / subfield / thesis committee or supervisor, the breadth and depth of training in both academic and extra-academic domains, and effectiveness of their preparation for their post-PhD careers.

For more information, please contact Prof. Abinandanan or Prof. Maresi Nerad

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is part of a larger set of ideas and initiatives addressing socially responsible innovation and describes a research and innovation process that considers effects and potential impacts on the environment and society. RRI “refers to the comprehensive approach of proceeding in research and innovation in ways that allow all stakeholders that are involved in the processes of research and innovation at an early stage (A) to obtain relevant knowledge on the consequences of the outcomes of their actions and on the range of options open to them and (B) to effectively evaluate both outcomes and options in terms of societal needs and moral values and (C) to use these considerations (under A and B) as functional requirements for design and development of new research, products and services.”^[a] The Centre has the following on-going research projects under this theme.

1. Responsible Research and Innovation to engage with Vulnerabilities of Agricultural Systems

2. Transitioning to a bio-based economy: a comparative study of innovation ecosystem for II generation (lignocellulose based) biofuels in India and Brazil.

3. What twirls the triple-helix for biofuels: A scientometrics and patentometrics study of top five biofuel producers in the world.

 ^[a] European Commission (2013). “Options for Strengthening Responsible Research and Innovation – Report of the Expert Group on the State of Art in Europe on Responsible Research and Innovation” (PDF). doi:10.2777/46253.

For more details, please contact Dr. Poonam Pandey