Research and Innovation Funding & Support

Public Sector

In addition to providing funding support for non-university institutes, different organisations also finance research projects by individual scientists, depending on the subject area. The largest and most important of these is the Department of Science and Technology (DST), which awards research grants in the broad area of ​​natural sciences and technology through calls for proposals. The same applies to the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), which specifically promotes research and offers research funding in the field of life sciences. The individual Research Councils (ICSSR, ICHR, ICPR) also offer funding depending on their financial resources. In addition, the University Grants Commission (UGC), tasked mainly with the regulation of higher education institutions, is responsible for humanities and social science research projects at non-technical universities. Additionally, the Indian government is also involved in major international projects such as DESY and FAIR.

Private Sector

At 0.3% of GDP (2016), private sector investment in research is still at a nascent stage in India. While few Indian companies directly undertake research themselves, a number of multinational companies have discovered India as a promising research location. In addition to the large corporations in the IT sector, it is primarily pharmaceutical and chemical companies that are setting up large research centres in India. They all benefit from India’s skilled and well – trained workforce, especially in the IT sector.