Pune: The Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) has allocated ₹10 crore for the research of professors associated with it. This provision has been made under the ‘Aspire Scheme’ and a decision regarding this was taken in the meeting of the management council of the university on Tuesday.
Under the BCUD Research Project, faculty members from colleges associated with Savitribai Pune University were financially funded to undertake research. However, financing for programmes like Aspire has ceased in recent years, resulting in the university lagging in regard to research. This also meant the university’s NRIF ranking steadily went down.
As per the information given by SPPU, the university was giving incentives to promote research under the quality improvement scheme. However, the funds given for this scheme were gradually dwindling. This also affected the research in the university and affiliated colleges. To create a research culture in the universities and colleges, necessary efforts have been made in the last few years. However, now that substantial funds have been allocated for the Aspire scheme, it is expected that the professors will turn to research again.