Annual Report 2006-2007

Scientific Research

Science and Engineering Research Council

The Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) continued its programmes to promote research and development in interdisciplinary and frontier areas of Science & Engineering in the country. The existence of SERC has not only sustained the scientific communities interest in basic research but has given the Indian Scientists working in basic & fundamental research an opportunity to make their impact felt at a global level. It continued its support to research projects in challenging and promising fields. As in the previous years Programmes under SERC are carefully selected through respective Programme Advisory Committees (PAC) that played a pro-active role in identifying challenging areas of research and supported proposals with well-defined objectives in these areas.

The Council, met thrice during the period to approve projects in various broad areas of Science & Engineering. A brainstorming meeting of SERC was convened to discuss and formulate SERC programmes for the Eleventh Five Year Plan. This was followed by series of special meetings of Programme Advisory Committees in various disciplines.

The contribution of Indian scientists in scientific Journals and at national and global level is being acknowledged by their peers and the S&T Academies by few of them getting National & International recognition. Special efforts were made to identify active scientists, particularly Young ones, and Institutions in remote areas and encouraged by providing research support and Visiting fellowships etc.

The Department under the SERC R&D programme sanctioned 331 projects at a total cost of Rs 6861.5 lakhs. The discipline-wise and institution-wise break-up of funds is given in Fig. I & II. The support extended during the past five years is illustrated in Fig. III.

Fig. 1 SERC Support - Discipline Wise 2006-2007

Fig. 2 SERC Support – Institution Wise 2006-2007

Fig. 3 SERC Support – During the Past Five Years

R&D Projects sanctioned during 2006-2007 (till 31st December, 2006)

Some of the new projects supported are in the areas like : Organic Synthesis, Condensed Matter Physics; Materials Science & Engineering, Plant Sciences; Phase Transition; Bioorganic Chemistry, Supramolecular Chemistry, Plasma Physics, High Energy Physics, Nuclear Physics, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Nonlinear Dynamics, Lasers, Optics, Atomic and Molecular Physics Materials Chemistry, Health Science, Animal Sciences, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Organometallic Chemistry, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Mineral Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Robotics & Manufacturing Engineering and Civil & Mechanical Engineering etc. Few training programmes and SERC Schools in various front line techniques and advanced areas have been supported by the Council.

The Website for the SERC (www.serc-dst.org), which was launched five years back, has been updated and is being used extensively by the scientific community.

Special emphasis has been given to the monitoring and evaluation mechanism of research programmes so as to asses the quality of work and research output. Several Group Monitoring Workshops have been organized in various disciplines in this period.

The achievements under Nano Science & Technology Initiative (NSTI) is highlighted below