ISRO sets up academic centre in Karnataka, to provide Rs 2 crore grant annually

ISRO will provide Rs 2 crore grant annually to NIT for the Research and Development projects and promotional activities through the year.

A regional academic centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has been set up at the National Institute of Technology, Surathkal (NITK), as per officials. The centre will be the fourth such centre in the country.

The Joint research and development in space technology applications will be conducted by the centre to meet the needs of the space programme, said space agency’s director for capacity building PV Venkitakrishnan.
The state-run ISRO will also provide Rs 2 crore grant annually to NIT for the R&D projects and promotional activities through the year. On Friday, the engineering institute signed an agreement with the space agency on the industry-academic collaboration at Surathkal.

The centre would also be promoting space technology in the southern states, including Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana and would also serve to be an ambassador for capacity-building, awareness and research and development. The centre will be guided by a joint policy in optimally utilizing the research potential, infrastructure, expertise and experience of the space agency along with the management committee.

The director also stated that the committee will also plan activities like research programmes of common interest and review their projects periodically. The activities will be directed by ISRO’s visiting scientists and experts in space technology and NIT faculty members and researchers.

The under-graduation (BTech) and post-graduation (MTech) students will be involved in the one-year short term research projects and 2-4 year-long-term projects in advance space programmes, said NIT’s Professor K Umamashewara Rao.

The other three such regional academic centres of the Organisation include Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, Rajasthan, Gauhati University in Assam's state capital and Kurukshetra University at Thanesar, Haryana.