Research sluggish as many stay at home

Research sluggish as many stay at home

Institutes Keen On Reopening Laboratories To Resume Projects

SwatiShindeGole@timesgroup.com

Pune:21.06.2020

Prominent research institutions in the city, including the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) and others, are facing many hurdles in research projects as a result of the lockdown.

Many doctoral students went home when the educational institutions shut down in March.

Fields like humanities had little effect, but actual laboratory research has been hampered, heads of institutions said. IISER, Pune has written to the state government and the Union ministry of Human Resource and Development to allow PhD students to report to institutes to resume projects.

Director Jayant Udgaonkar, said a common letter on behalf of all IISERs in the country has been given to the ministry to allow PhD students and fellows to get back to work.

Udgaonkar told TOI that educational institutions can’t open, but they were both, education and research institutes. “We understand that classroom sessions cannot take place, but research activities cannot stop. Our students involved in various projects are waiting to come back ,” he said.

The institute heads said to carry out any research project, the faculties bank on doctoral and fellows and a bulk of actual work is done by them.

Several departments at the SPPU are carrying out research projects. Registrar Prafulla Pawar, said that students are the backbone of any research project in a national institute. “We bank on these doctoral students. They are the real brains and if they are allowed to work in this situation, they will surely be able to contribute to the problem with solutions.”

The situation at the National Centre for Cell Science is no different and officials said research work was hampered. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) has contributed with innovative products including masks, hand sanitisers, disinfectant mist system, cheaper swabs among others in the past three months despite unavailability of their research student strength.

NCL director Ashwin Kumar Nangia said, “We have started with local students since last week. We will allow outstation students in stages depending on the situation next week and so on. We are trying to make decisions keeping all the factors in mind.”

Several departments at the SPPU are carrying out research projects

Extension sought for PhD pupils

Senate members and academic council members of the Savitribai Phule Pune University have requested the varsity’s administration to give a six-month extension to Ph D students to complete their research work.

Eleven members of the senate and academic council of SPPU in a letter to the vice-chancellor Nitin Karmalkar on Thursday said the lockdown was imposed in March and the future seems uncertain.

Senate member Shamakant Deshmukh who was part of the 11-member panel said many PhD students in various colleges and university departments have not been able to communicate with their guides for many days. “They have not been able to visit libraries or their research laboratories since the lockdown. Hence, they have been lagging in their research. Also, many PhD students have gone back to their homes. Hence, we have demanded the extension,” he said. TNN