Introduction
The world, has been witnessing the rapid advancement of the Knowledge Societies, driven by the engine, the Knowledge Economy, and propelled by the pervasive forces of technology. The academia, especially in the higher education sector, plays a pivotal role in fueling the growth as a prime source of knowledge creation. Developing the knowledge base, through higher education, research and innovation, may accelerate the growth of all knowledge societies. The University of Calicut wishes to adopt a strategic plan to enhance its research capabilities and potentials, prioritizing the development goals of the nation. Subscribing to the above, the University upholds the widely-held belief that teaching should be informed and supported by research active staff. It is thus equally important to encourage and support research throughout the University at a level that will allow all staff a reasonable opportunity to establish a research career, and to make continued access to research time/infrastructure. This will serve to increase the pool of potential researchers and broaden research career opportunities. In a framework of maintaining and diversifying resources and facilities, the following prime objectives have been proposed for the next 5 years of the development of research in University of Calicut.
A. Foster and grow an active research culture
- Recognize and support the university’s areas of research strength. Identify the University’s strongest research areas. Give our successful research areas and centers by “stars” , a motivation to shine and to reach out excellence
- Maximize the opportunities for good researchers to do research
- Focus and support research in a few niche areas
- Promote team research through Excellence Park, Specialized Laboratories , Research Units/Observatories/Centres/Institutes, and Research Groups, besides individual projects
- Develop plans to improve research quality and impact
- Set criteria for assessing research quality and conduct research assessments
- Increase citations by raising the quality of research
- Reward excellence and achievement in research
- Develop outreach activities aimed at enhancing the research and innovation culture
- Encourage organization of national and international research events
- Develop and consolidate pathways to ventilate research findings
B. Create synergies, strengthen inter-disciplinary and collaborative research through increasing the number of functional and strategic internal and external links
- Identify emerging strategic, inter-disciplinary priority areas
- Identify and focus on potential income-generating research and consultancies
- Formulate mechanisms and incentives to support such multi-discipline research activity
- Integrate the activities of the various research into the core research endeavours of the University
- Promote high-impact collaboration with other leading universities worldwide
C. Build future research and research capacity
- Develop world-class research infrastructure and administrative support structures
- Promote a vibrant research environment which attracts and retains the best researchers and values and rewards their contributions
- Effectively and efficiently manage research
- Emphasis on quality research training
- Attract outstanding research students or researchers, new talents and potentials; and train and develop the next generation of research leaders to the best international standards
- Appoint and retain high-calibre researchers
- Aspire to effective and efficient high degree research administration with low withdrawal rates, high throughput and exemplary supervision
- Accelerate the growth research activity
D. Increase research income from external sources to support more research
- Develop and practice smooth and hurdle free administrative mechanism to attract research funding, contract research and consultancies
- Implement project administration rules
- Develop attractive schemes for tapping resources for research
- Stimulate knowledge transfer and commercialisation
E. Make Research to Socially Relevant Application of Higher Education
- Understanding the specific socio-political, economic and cultural dimensions of the research
- Focus on application-driven project funding or on problem-oriented research
- The right choice of words “relevance and utility”, in research.
- Monitoring and regulatory function, which can help prevent catastrophic situations involving loss of human life and destruction of communities
- Documenting research systems, via the collection of reliable data and transferring to society as a necessary base for action of improvement.