Education, Careers & Professional News
Framework legislation to promote scientific research
In a bid to ensure quicker commercialisation of research in scientific institutions and universities and to provide greater incentives to scientists, the Centre has proposed to come out with a framework legislation providing guidelines on how the rights on technologies developed by scientists should be shared among them, the scientific institutions they work in and the funding agencies.
Union Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said that the legislation would be ready in about three months. It would be placed before Parliament in the winter session.
The legislation would be on the lines of the Bayh-Dole Act of the United States. Under the Act, scientists working in universities in the U.S. are allowed to retain ownership to inventions and discoveries they make under federally-funded research. In turn, universities are expected to file for patent protection and to ensure commercialisation upon licensing. The royalties from such ventures are shared with the inventors, with a portion provided to the university and the department or college and another provided for supporting the process of technology transfer to the industry.
At present, funding agencies and scientific institutions follow different strategies for sharing the benefits of the IPRs generated by scientists. The law would address the issue by providing for standard guidelines, Mr. Sibal said.
The Ministry has also planned to bring in 10 Nobel Laureates in different fields of science and technology and hold interactive sessions between them and young scientists so that the latter could benefit from their experience and get motivated.
Mr. Sibal was speaking to reporters after a meeting with a group of 25 young scientists from different institutions, which had gone for a conference in Lindau in Germany, where about 50 Nobel Laureates interacted with young scientists from across world through round table debates, lectures and personal small group discussions.
Earlier, at a meeting organised by the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), CSIR Director-General, R.A. Mashelkar, announced that a national bio-fuel policy was in the offing to promote research and development of new types of fuel derived from trees and plants. Several institutions have already been working on producing such fuels from several plants and there have been positive results. The new policy would give a further boost to such ventures.
Assocham President, Mahendra K.Sanghi called for measures to promote entrepreneurship among scientists. They suggested the creation of an entrepreneurial investment fund that would provide finance for research activities of scientists and engineers and measures to allow scientists to become shareholders in industrial units to which they transfer their technologies. The scientists should be encouraged to go in for debt equity in the industrial units, instead of just getting royalties for their technologies as was the practice now, they said