Shimla, Apr 17 (PTI)  A grant of Rs 10 crores has been sanctioned for the Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) to boost the institution’s research capabilities, varsity’s officiating vice chancellor Prof Sat Prakash Bansal said on Thursday.

The grant has been given under the Partnerships for Accelerated Innovation and Research (PAIR) programme of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), a statutory body of the central government.  Under the PAIR programme, the university has collaborated with IIT Ropar for this initiative, where IIT Ropar will act as ‘Hub Institute’ and HPU as ‘Spoke Institution’.

“The proposed hub and spoke model is a powerful tool to efficiently accelerate the progress of institutions as it works on a pull-and-push approach. While the hub pulls together the available potential and skills of the spokes for the envisioned research activities, they concurrently push scientific advancement and excellence back into the spokes, enabling them to progress rapidly.  “The program is thus expected to not only bridge the gap between institutions but also serve as a catalyst for transformative research. In its first phase, the program will focus on universities which have demonstrated potential through national ranking and those that have promised to scale their research,” Prof Bansal said in a statement.    He further said that the university is going to strengthen its instrumentation facility and procure several sophisticated instruments worth Rs 6.5 crore out of Rs 10 crore.  Under this initiative, a maximum of Rs 100 Cr will be allocated to Hub and Spoke institutions in 30:70 ratio. PTI COR AMJ  AMJ AMJ