Introduction:
High-quality, high-impact research requires sophisticated facilities and IIT Bombay strives to judiciously invest in such facilities. Towards this endeavour, IIT Bombay had set up the Research Infrastructure Funding Committee (RIFC) in 2011. The committee is headed by the Dean (R&D) and has members from across the Institute with adequate representations from all major disciplines. The committee was constituted with a mandate of reviewing proposals and recommending funding for high-end, high-value (typically greater than Rs. 1 Cr) research facilities. The committee members are usually professors who have experience in the entire life-cycle (procurement-installation/commissioning-operation/maintenance) of large research facilities.
RIFC typically releases call for proposals once in a year or so depending upon the availability of funds. The proposals are then scrutinized, reviewed and revised (if required) before the recommendations are forwarded to the Director for approval. The facilities created under RIFC are classified either as Central Facilities or as Departmental Facilities. Central facilities are entirely funded by the Institute and has wide usage across departments. Department facilities can be either fully funded or partly funded with part funding from sponsored projects. Department facilities are those that have significant usage charges etc. The Dean (R&D)'s office maintains a web-portal for all such central facilities. Besides technical details of the facility, members of the FMC, the portal is also used by users to book time/slot on these facilities for access. A part of the time is also made available to users outside the Institute. The Institute provides funding for meeting expenses pertaining to consumables, AMC/CMC and manpower for all central facilities. Each year, the Institute Committee for Central Facilities meets to review the performance of each of the central facilities. The faculty in-charge of the facilities are required to make a presentation highlighting the usage statistics of the facility, publications/patents borne out of the facility, any issues pertaining to operation etc. Based on a review of the performance, recurring budget for the facilities and the stakeholders is held to create a platform where users of the facilities can interact with peers as well as faculty in-charges of the facilities.
In addition to supporting World Class Research Labs setting up, IoE Scheme also aim to fund substantially the projects cleared by RIFC. We have already called for three rounds of RIFC proposals which have been evaluated by a committee consisting of experts in the field. As of date total of 66 projects cleared by the committee with an approximate financial outlay of Rs. 185.29 Cr. is being funded under the IoE Scheme.
The projects/equipment currently supported under the IoE Scheme are given in the below documents:-