A landmark initiative for commercialising the home-grown technologies, Tezpur University (TU) has come into an agreement with the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), an enterprise of the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India, to develop fruitful collaborations with suitable industry partners and commercialise promising technologies developed in the campus.
A Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) was signed in the university on Saturday in this regard between the Tezpur University (TU) and NRDC in presence of key functionaries. Dr Biren Das, registrar, TU and Dr H Purushotham, CMD, NRDC signed the documents on behalf of the respective organizations.
Speaking on the occasion Dr Purushotham applauded the initiative taken by the Tezpur University Intellectual Property Rights Cell (TUIPR) to release the innovations from the university for the benefit of the society through commercialisation and hoped that the agreement would benefit not only the senior faculty members but also the young researchers and student entrepreneurs.
“It has long been felt that conducive atmosphere needs to be created for the industries to feel confident while seeking solutions to their problems with the academic institutions,” Dr Purushotham said.
“Additionally, deepening of industry-academia interaction is expected to enhance the quality of teaching and research in the universities and production/process outputs for the industry,” he said, adding, “Our students and researchers are talented, but they do not know where to go for patenting or selling their products.”
Addressing the gathering, Prof Pritam Deb, coordinator, TU IPR Cell, said, “Understanding the urgency of such an initiative in the region, the TUIPR Cell has been tirelessly working to create an industry-academia platform and has recently organized a National Symposium on Role of Innovation and Technology for Sustainable Development, where many top-notch industry experts were invited.”
The MoA will promote, develop and commercialise the technologies/know-how/inventions/patents/ processes emanating from the university and also help in establishing linkages with research funding agencies.