[MINUS]

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Kerala University has been selected for a grant of Rs nine crore by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) of the Union Government under the Promotion of University Research and Scientific Excellence (PURSE)programme.

The grant was sanctioned on a proposal submitted by Dr. V Prasannakumar, director of Research of the university.

The proposal, formulated in consultation with the heads of science departments, aims at augmenting shareable and expensive analytical facilities that are essential for improving research in various departments.

Prasannakumar told ‘Express’ that the grant would improve the quality of research in inter-disciplinary areas. It will also help in expanding research to more areas, he said.

PURSE programme promotes value-added proactive measures through Research and Department Incentive Grant. It provides substantive research grant to universities in appreciation of their R & D contributions.

Under the PURSE programme, DST intends to provide support to performing universities across the country, essentially for research, man power costs, augmentation of equipment and computational facilities, research consumables, organisation of scientific conferences, workshops, travel and maintenance of facilities. Kerala University will get Rs nine crore distributed in the above heads for three years.

PURSE provides substantive research grant to universities on the basis of scientific publications in Science Citation Indexed Journals through SCOPUS Database.

India is ranked 12th among the top 20 countries in Science and Technology, according to a study conducted by the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, New Delhi, on Publication Output in SCOPUS International Database for a period of ten years. SCOPUS considers H-Index as a means to evaluate research performance. The H-index attempts to measure both scientific productivity and apparent scientific impact of a researcher.

The H-index is based on the researcher’s most cited papers and the number of citations the papers’ received in other publications. The index can also be applied to judge the impact and productivity of a group of researchers at a department or university.

14 universities were supported under PURSE programme during 2009-2010 on the basis of a study conducted by NISTADS, New Delhi, on Publication Output in SCOPUS International Database between 1996 and 2006. The programme is now in operation in these universities.

The DST recently conducted a study through NISTADS for analysing the performance of universities using the H-index as an indicator through SCOPUS Database during 1998- 2008. 30 new universities which have H-index ranging from 42 to 26, have been identified for support during 2010-2011.

Source : Expressbuzz