The National Education Policy 2020 has envisioned the establishment of ANRF with an overarching goal to enable a culture of research to permeate through universities and to undertake major initiatives to seed and grow research at state universities and other academic institutions where research capability is currently limited. As a first step towards fostering research across a broader range of institutions, a new program Partnerships for Accelerated Innovation and Research (PAIR) has been initiated. The motivation is to go beyond empowering researchers of institutions through individual-centric research grants, to a more holistic approach of uplifting the research culture and excellence of the entire institution in a systematic manner.
PAIR Program has been designed to boost the research capability of those institutions where research is at a nascent stage but which have the potential to perform well, in a mentorship mode by pairing them with well-established top-tier research institutions in a hub and spoke framework. The proposed hub and spoke model is a powerful tool to efficiently accelerate the progress of institutions as it works on a pull-and-push approach. While the hub pulls together the available potential and skills of the spokes for the envisioned research activities, they concurrently push scientific advancement and excellence back into the spokes enabling them to rapidly progress. The program is thus expected to not only bridge the gap between institutions but also serve as a catalyst for transformative research.
Last date: 31 December
