Odisha Govt Announces Rs 1 Crore Research Fund For Medical Colleges & PG Institutes

Bhubaneswar: In order to strengthen the quality of medical education and research, the Odisha government have announced a “research fund”.

The Health and Family Welfare department, in an official notification on Monday, said the fund will be placed with the Dean and Principals/Directors of all government medical and dental college and hospitals and post- graduate institutes to meet the expenditure towards research related activities.

The provision aims at enhancing the quality of medical education by facilitating research among faculties and students for encouraging research publications and presentation of research works in conferences within the country.

A total research fund of Rs1 crore each per annum will be provided to SCB Medical College and Hospital (MCH), Cuttack, MKCG MCH, Berhampur and VIMSAR, Burla and Rs 50 lakh for new government medical colleges and SCB Dental College, Cuttack. The PG institutes will be provided with a research fund of Rs 25 lakh.

The principal investigator of projects can submit proposals to the member secretary of the selection-cum-monitoring committee for consideration of the fund. If satisfied, the committee may recommend financial assistance from the research fund.

Scope of the scheme:

a. Assistance through ‘Research Fund’ can be availed only for intramural projects.

b. Meeting expenses incurred for research, research publications and participation in seminars / conferences within the country.

c. Research assistance can be claimed by a faculty only once per year, and only the principal investigator who is in regular government service is eligible for the same. But he is eligible to apply for another project only after completing the first with approval of the selection committee.

d. All travel expenses, including flights, trains, buses, or car rentals as per the eligibility under prevailing Odisha TA Rules will be allowed to the eligible candidates.

e. For meeting expenses incurred for participation in conference / seminar to present a research paper related to research, a prior permission for the same from appropriate authority and acceptance letter from the organiser for paper presentation is required.

f. Expenses incurred on account of registration, fees for the conference /seminar, three days of accommodation, and meals as per the eligibility or the amount actually spent, whichever is less will be allowed as eligible expenses.

g. Costs for consumables like gloves, chemicals, biochemical or pathological tests, imaging technologies utilised for the research, if not available in the institution, are eligible expenses.

h. Funds for digitization of data required for research purposes are permissible expenses.

i. Charges for publication of research work in any National Medical Commission (NMC) / National Dental Commission (NDC) approved Journal are eligible expenses.

j. For all research projects, Ethical clearance certificate from institutional ethics committee and / or any other legally authorised committee must be obtained and be appended with the reimbursement or assistance claim.

k. For clinical trials/drug trials the permission letter from appropriate authority must be appended with the reimbursement or assistance claim.

|. The research has to be an original work with appropriate research questions and methodology. Plagiarism in any form will lead to disqualification.