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INTRODUCTION
The development of research facilities in
the sciences have been quite substantial although not adequate
in the last fifty years in the country. However, most of the
modern facilities are located in the National Laboratories and
the IITs. The Universities have very little infrastructure
and modern research equipment and this has hampered the growth
of research and consequently human resource development in the
universities.
In the recent past, some action has been
taken to rectify this situation. The creation of the Inter
University Centres and the Inter University Consortiums are
efforts in that direction.
Of the IUCs, Nuclear Science Centre has
developed state of the art in-house facilities for research in
the areas of accelerator based physics and Inter University
Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics has provided the
university users facilities for research in Astronomy and
astrophysics. Under the MoU between UGC and DAE the facilities
of the Department of Atomic Energy are accessible to the
university users through the IUC-DAEF.
One of the schemes which has proved
successful in ensuring that the facilities at NSC are
maximally utilised, is the UGC Funded User Project (UFUP)
through which faculty and students are supported for travel
and fellowship once their work proposals are accepted by the
User Committee. This has allowed individual researchers from
remotest parts of the country to come to NSC and perform
experiments and conduct their research.
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Since a good number of equipment and
facilities are with the National laboratories, it is felt that
a similar scheme to support the university users to go and use
these facilities should be put in place. This entails a very
modest investment of funds and would go a long way in
alleviating the lack of facilities in the universities and
also ensure that these costly equipment are maximally utilised.
There are several institutions under the
departments of Atomic Energy (DAE), Scientific and Industrial
Research (CSIR), Defence Research and Development Organisation
(DRDO) and the Indian Institute of Technologies, which are
quite well endowed with modern scientific equipment. These
equipments, of course, were procured for their internal use in
the respective institutions. However, the internal usages do
not require many of these to be operational round the clock.
Thus there exists a scope for users from the University sector
to utilise these facilities, if funding for their travel,
contingency, etc. is provided. Each of these facilities then
has the potential to become an Inter-University facility.
The UGC already has a Memorandum of
Understanding with the Department of Atomic Energy which would
allow the university researchers access to the facilities in
the DAE laboratories. Similar MoUs may be worked out with the
other scientific departments like CSIR and DRDO.
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Inside Higher Education
Research Facilities