Sponsored research has seen a quantum leap at the top Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) with IIT-Madras and Delhi recording a 394% and 300% growth in the last five years. In fact, IIT-Madras became the first IIT ever to cross the 500 crore-mark for sponsored research, earning a total of 536.54 crore worth of projects in the financial year 2018-19. IIT Delhi, Guwahati and Bombay also recorded more than 300-crore earnings through industry research. 

IIT-Madras registered a sponsored research funding of 108.49 crore in 2014-15 which has gone up to 536.54 crore in 2018-19 showing a steady growth of 10-15% annually. Having already earned the highest ever annual sponsored research funding in 2018-19, the institute is expecting a growth of 15% to 20% in the current financial year. 

IIT-M has seen growth double in past 5 years in consultancy projects. Sponsored projects include funding from industries as well as government agencies. 

“We had been giving thrust to translation research –idea to product. One such manifestation is the IIT-Madras research park, the first of its kind. That basically focused our research towards the need of industry and society,” said Prof V Kamakoti, associate dean (industrial consultancy and sponsored research), IIT-M. 

Having recently acquired the Institution of eminence (IoE) tag, IITBombay, IIT-Delhi and IITMadras hope to significantly increase their share of sponsored research projects. IITs like Kharagpur, Bombay and Madras saw growth double in last five years in consultancy projects too. 

IIT-B witnessed a surge in their funding receipts in 2016-17, and the flow remained steady. Post the IoE tag it is expecting increased funding from government agencies, some of which has already been released in the current year. Milind Atrey, dean (research and development), IIT-B, said that the institute gives seed funding to the new faculty and additional funds in select cases. “The faculty is then expected to support the research with funding from external agencies after a stipulated period,” he said. 

“I see a positive growth in the number of industries visiting the institute in recent years, and about 30-40% of these results in some kind of collaboration,” added Atrey. “The Centre is now looking at releasing multi-institutional funding, where two or more IITs can collaborate with an industry, to make optimum use of their specialisations,” said Atrey. 

A majority of the funding comes in these institutes through faculty research – from industries or government agencies – and considering the three larger IITs have more than 650 faculty members on their board, the funding they receive is bound to be higher than the rest, said a former director of one of the older IITs.