State universities’ patent filings jump from 300 to over 1,000, 33% rise in publications in 2 years

Bhubaneswar: The state’s higher education ecosystem has recorded a significant surge in research and innovation output over the past two years, with universities reporting a nearly fourfold increase in patent filings and a substantial rise in research publications.

Commissioner-cum-secretary of higher education department Aravind Agarwal said that the number of patents generated by universities and higher educational institutions in Odisha has increased from around 300 two years back to 1,155 at present. The growth has been driven by both public and private universities, reflecting a stronger focus on research, innovation and industry-oriented academic work, he said, while speaking on the sidelines of the VC conference on Monday.

One of the highlights of the research by public universities has been an anti-diabetic drug tech transfer to the industry from Ravenshaw University. “Industrial production of this technology is currently underway,” he said.

Alongside the increase in patents, the state has also witnessed a 33% rise in research paper publications during the same period. Within the last two years, there have been over 20,000 research publications from higher education institutes of the state, said Agarwal.

He added that two research papers have been published in Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals with an impact factor of 98.5, from Utkal and Ravenshaw universities.

“Currently, there are 22 centres of excellence (CoEs) in eight state public universities, and now, new CoEs are in the pipeline with research focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and nano science among other things,” he said.

While CoEs in Utkal university are focusing on AI, climate change and public health, those in Berhampur University are doing so in nano science and sensor technology. Likewise, Sambalpur University is focusing on research on natural products and therapeutics, and Rama Devi Women’s University on AI & robotics through their respective CoEs.

To strengthen the research ecosystem, the state is currently supporting more than 300 PhD scholars under Mukhyamantri Research and Innovation Programme, where scholars are being provided Rs 30,000 every month as fellowship. Besides, 60 extramural research grants upto Rs 10 lakh per project is being provided by the govt annually. “We are also supporting publication in Q1 journals by providing Rs 50,000 per article and Rs 50,000 as patent filing assistance. In the two-year period, 215 projects have been funded,” he said.

Also, many public universities have signed 75 MoUs with national and global institutions for advancing research within this period.