Indian Institute of Science
DST – Centre for Policy Research at Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, is organising the Open Science South Asian Network (OSSAN) Conference from 5th to 8th September 2022. The conference aims to deliberate on the key issues and challenges that affect open science in the context of South Asia by providing a platform for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to share the interesting findings from their studies and work in this area.
The conference will host keynote lectures, workshops, and panel discussions to provide a unique forum for researchers, librarians, practitioners, infrastructure providers, policymakers, and other important stakeholders to discuss the latest and future developments in Open Science, especially for the global south. For details on the speakers please check the conference website.
We are inviting Speakers and abstracts on the following themes:
More information on the Call for Abstracts can be found here:
https://sites.google.com/view/ossanconference/register-now/submit-your-abstract.
Selected abstracts would be published in the Book of Abstracts. Selected few would be invited for short presentations in the conference.
For further details on the project please visit the project website: https://ossan2022.net.
The objective of this roundtable was to discuss the current potential and challenges of Citizen Science in India and chart out the possible way-ahead including the creation of a citizen science network or a common platform in the country. Various policy interventions in operating the citizen science projects in India were also discussed with experts from leading citizen science projects in the country, representatives of the young science academy, government agencies and the Global Citizen Science Partnership.
The talk on science, technology and innovation policies (STIP) for development will be a critical reflection on exploring some key trends in a socio-historical perspective. Four different phases and trends, which are not exclusive but envelop with each other, are traced between 1947 and the contemporary period. Science and technology (S&T) policy in the formative years left a distinct Nehruvian imprint in the post-colonial and post-independent India. With a huge population, India is not dependent on food on outside countries since the 1960s. Green and White Revolutions have made immense contribution to develop scientific and technical capacities in agriculture security and related fields of research. India’s innovation system, including higher education, has given her some comparative advantage through ‘human capital’ in information technology, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, space research and so on.
However, in export promotion and economic competitiveness in technology-based industries, we lag behind East Asian ‘Dragons’. India’s informal sector coupled with 650 plus industrial clusters poses a formidable challenge in skills and technological up gradation with more than 95% of India’s labour force. When we begin to assess our national innovation system, one feature that stands out to research observers is few islands of excellence, some promising S&T landscapes but vast ‘hinterlands’ of underdeveloped research arenas. Despite successive higher educational policies, India is yet to achieve what is known as the ‘Humboltdian goal’. There is clearly a gap between theory and practice of science policy in India. Our gross expenditure on research and development as a proportion of gross domestic product remained relatively stagnant in the last couple of decades and, in fact, receded from 0.8% in the 1990s to 0.7% in 2020. At 75, when a country introspects and looks back, it certainly needs some benchmarks, perspectives and strategies. Some attention will be given to these STIP issues confronting us.
Professorial Fellow, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia,
Editor-in-Chief, Science, Technology and Society (Sage)
Venni V. Krishna is currently Professorial Fellow, School of Humanities and Languages at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He has been elected as the Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales, Australia in December 2019. He was Professor in Science Policy and Chair, Centre for Studies in Science Policy, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi for more than 20 years. He held faculty positions at the National University of Singapore; McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Maison des Science De l Homme, Paris; United Nations University, Japan; Western Sydney University, Sydney and Tsinghua University, Beijing.
Over the years, he published over 40 papers and five books which include: Science, Technology and Diffusion of Knowledge: Innovation Systems in Asia-Pacific (Edward Elgar 2007); Scientific Communities in the Developing Countries, (Sage 1997). His latest book is on Chinese Universities in the National Innovation Systems (2021) co-authored with three Chinese scholars. Earlier to that he published, Universities in the National Innovation Systems: Experiences from Asia Pacific (Routledge 2017) He is Editor-in-Chief of a ranked international journal Science, Technology and Society (Sage). He was member of various expert committees and been consultant at UNESCO, OECD, ILO and other international agencies. He contributed to World Science Report 1998 and UNESCO Science Report 2005, and to the ILO in 2001 for its programme on the informal sector. He served as expert on European Research Council’s Grand Challenges and European Union, Brussels, based networks on research and innovation policies since the 1990s.
Click here to join the lecture on 8th March at 11:00 am
This International Rare Diseases Day 2022, we take a critical look at the representation of rare diseases (RDs) in the health agenda and policy of the country and seek answers to the following questions:. Do RDs receive equal representation with common diseases in the country’s health agenda and policies in the public and private sectors? How can we ensure equity in the representation of RDs in public health programmes and in health systems delivery? How do we ensure equity in the representation of RDs in the private sector? We invite an expert panel to deliberate over this critical matter to ensure equity of RDs in public health in the Indian context.
CEO, DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance
Professor and Dean of Research, Ashoka University
National Advisor, Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK)
Chair of The Board of International Alliance of Patients’ Organizations (IAPO)
CEO, Symphony Tech Biologics, and former Head of R&D Biocon
Assistant Director (Research), Health Equity cluster lead, Institute of Public Health
DST-STI Policy Fellow
DST-CPR-IISc Bengaluru
Senior Project Associate
DST-CPR-IISc Bengaluru
This International Rare Diseases month 2022, we take a comprehensive look at the rare diseases registry mechanism in India and examine greater ways and means to strengthen it in the health policy agenda of the country. We invite an expert panel from India and overseas to deliberate on the strengthening of the rare disease registry in India. What is the present status of the National Registry for Rare Diseases? What could be the potential ways and means to strengthen it? Learning from experiences of APEC and exploring the possibilities of adopting similar strategies in the Indian context.
Former Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research
Senior Adviser/Scientist-H, Head of Policy Coordination & Programme Management (PCPM) Division, Department of Science & Technology (DST)
Director of eResearch, Division of Research, Queensland University of Technology
Professor & Head of the Biology Department, Ashoka University
Genetic Counselor and Associate Professor, JSS Medical College
Former Scientist ‘G’ ICMR and Programme Officer for Rare Disease Registry
INSA Senior Scientist, Ashoka University
DST-STI Policy Fellow
DST-CPR-IISc Bengaluru
Associate Director
Science Policy Initiative
Office of Research & Development
Ashoka University
Dr. Mohua Chakraborty Choudhury (DST-CPR-IISc)
Dr. Anjali Taneja (Ashoka University)
Dr. Pragya Chaube (DST-CPR-IISc)
Dr. Moumita Koley (DST-CPR-IISc)
Mr. Saikat Batabyal (DST-CPR-IISc)
Ms. Sowmya Narsipur (DST-CPR-IISc)
From governmental policies to individual commitments to a focus on sustainable development goals including social justice
This talk will provide the context to the experience of policy scholars by presenting macro- and micro-level changes in doctoral education and postdoctoral training worldwide. For 25 years, globalization and an increasing size of a middle-class in many countries around the world, have moved governmental attention to doctoral education and research for innovation. Governments, hereby, followed the economic model that views knowledge as a critical national resource for economic growth, innovation, and international competitiveness.The predominant models of research education reforms used by governments were monetary incentives often in forms of direct funding to universities for desired outcomes and competitive funding schemes for doctoral and postdoctoral programs with specified characteristics. The positive and negative consequences will be illustrated.
The way forward encourages the policy scholars to not only to work hard, but to develop and internalize a sustainability mindset and use the space and time now to question the status quo, to examine the reproduction of inequality, and to become aware and prepare for their future ethical leadership.
Professor for Higher Education at the University of Washington,
Visiting Professor at DST-CPR, IISc.
Prof. Maresi Nerad is the founding director of the Center for Innovation and Research in Graduate Education, Professor for Higher Education at the University of Washington and a Visiting Professor at the DST Centre for Policy Research at IISc, Bengaluru. Her work focuses on a broad range of issues in doctoral education and in early research careers worldwide. She has undertaken evaluation research for flagship interdisciplinary doctoral programs in the U.S., Germany and for the European Commission. She has written and edited 5 books and published numerous articles on doctoral education.
For more details on her work, click here.
Click here to join the lecture on 15th February, 4:00PM
Science and gender equality are both vital for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Despite institutional and cultural shifts for bringing more women in STEM education and related careers, we are witnessing gender gaps across all levels of STEM education, in science-related careers as well as at leadership positions. How do we leverage the untapped potential of women trained in STEM?
On the occasion of International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the DST-Centre for Policy Research at IISc. is partnering with UNESCO, New Delhi to reinvigorate the significance of feminist science, in theory and practice. This panel discussion aims to bring diverse perspectives and different voices for deliberating on feminist approach to science and science policy and exploring the need for dialogue among stakeholders supporting feminist perspectives in Science, Technology & Innovation (STI). We will examine how Feminist Perspectives can provide an alternative to dominant thinking and accounts in Gender and STI. Furthermore, the discussion will aim to suggest the way forward for constructive engagements with Philosophies of Feminist science and science policy which are relevant to the Indian context.
This discussion will be a great learning opportunity for students, early career researchers and policy practitioners who work on gender equity and inclusion in STI.
Prof. Banu Subramaniam
Professor, Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
Prof. Gita Chadha
Faculty Member, Sociology Department, University of Mumbai, India
Dr. Asha Achuthan
Assistant Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, India
Dr. Nimita Pandey
STI Postdoctoral Policy Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc)
Dr. Debanjana Dey
STI Postdoctoral Policy Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc)
Dr. Nimita Pandey
Ms. Sowmya Narsipur
Prof. T A Abinandanan
This two-day workshop was conducted virtually as part of capacity building for the DST-CPR community to help them hone their qualitative research skills.
About the speaker:
Ajit Mani, a certified Management Consultant and an alumnus of IIM Bangalore specializing in Agriculture and Rural Development Management, has built a broad range of professional experience working with NGOs and Government Agencies in India and abroad. His work focusses mainly on rural India and the unorganized urban sector. He has worked on various assignments in education, poverty, forest management, financial inclusion, sustainable urban development, among others.
He uses his expertise in research methodology and project management to provide policy training in both academia and industry. He has served as adjunct faculty for Kalinga School of Rural Management, Bhubaneshwar and has many years’ experience in designing courses and delivering public policy lectures. During this two-day workshop, he will be drawing from his own work experiences and using case-studies to cover topics in qualitative research methodologies to aid public policy research.
DST-CPR-IISc is happy to invite you for a digital conversation on “Young Scientists Learning Open Science”. This event is jointly organised by the Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), DST Centre for Policy Research, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, the UNESCO Chair in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, and DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance to discuss the implications of the UNESCO Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers, the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, Science with & for society, and the Government of India’s STI Policy, with the special focus on:
1. Responsible Research and Innovation
2. Public engagement
3. Science communication
4. Inclusion of multiple epistemologies and experiential knowledge in scientific research
5. Ethical issues in open source publications, field research and Indigenous protocols
The pandemic for the past two years has brought the roles of science, scientists, and scientific research institutions into public debate. It has created a context where connections between science and society are needed to be anchored on a new framework of openness and mutuality.
As the policy brief of Open Science Beyond Open Access observes “There are three main dimensions of scientific openness: openness to publications and data, openness to society, and openness to excluded knowledge and epistemologies.” The final draft of the UNESCO Open Science Recommendation, which also incorporates these expanded meanings of ‘open science’, has now been adopted by the Member States this month in Paris. Similar ideas are adopted in the final draft of the 5th National Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) Policy of the Government of India. The Scientific Social Responsibility (SSR) policy of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, already makes mention of the need for engaging with diverse stakeholders to improve the impacts of science on society.
Likewise, the UNESCO Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers adopted in 2017 has particular value today, especially in the Global South, in recognising the role of science in promoting “common good” and in emphasising the use of results of scientific research and development with a spirit of responsibility towards humankind and the environment.
Such testimonials create a space for science and technology systems and institutions to change and become more “open”. New conversations among scientists, science communicators, scientific researchers and civil society have begun to emerge as the need for a robust ecosystem to make science work with and for society is becoming more apparent. The experiences of the pandemic have also generated more significant public discourse about the accountability of science to society. In many regions of the world, new ways of promoting public engagement with and for science have been practised through an enabling policy framework. The European Union’s focus on Responsible Research & Innovations (RRI) has integrated several such features. There is now a growing recognition to synergise knowledge production and dissemination on such critical issues as the environment, health and food systems. A large portion of which is being carried out on the ground by a host of civil society actors in the country through community-based participatory research with the partnerships of academics with local communities.
Date: 25 November 2021
Time: 3.30 pm to 5.30 pm (IST)
Meeting link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_RZt26NOxT5ubKz2dASotww