Kolkata: Keeping pace with the changing global doctoral landscape, IIT Kharagpur, the oldest IIT in the country, is set to introduce India’s first fully structured innovation and product-centric doctoral programme with an aim to “convert job-seekers into job-creators”. The decision was taken at the senate meeting on Tuesday.“Universities across the world are complementing traditional publication-driven doctoral research with practice-oriented pathways that emphasise validated innovation, product development, industry integration and translational impact. Recently, the ‘Nature’ journal reported that Southeast University awarded unique ‘practical PhDs’. In this evolving global context, IIT Kharagpur will pioneer India’s first fully structured innovation and product-centric doctoral programme,” said director Suman Chakraborty. “It will complement the existing doctoral framework by recognising validated tech innovation, prototype development, intellectual property generation and real-world deployment as legitimate doctoral outcomes.”According to him, many types of PhDs are being produced in the engineering domain that lead to incremental publications. Often, innovation, development work and research have no practical implication despite the importance of practical outcome in the present context. “Our focus is on the mechanism to convert job-seekers into job-creators so that ‘Make in India‘ does not just remain a slogan. We need to ‘Innovate in India’, translate it into viable technology to provide leadership in deep-tech globally. We need import substitution to have our own innovation and support the economy and tech development through development of export-quality products,” he said.In the new PhD programme, two streams of admission will be permitted. First, existing PhD scholars can enter this programme if their work heads towards innovation and product development. Second, candidates can directly enter this track with product-centric research intent. “Students will be given incentives, such as fellowship, innovation grants, top-up funding from industry projects, fully funded IP filing support, startup incubation support, and access to RDI Fund prototyping grants. Students will be allowed deferred placements. While others may sit for an interview through Career Development Centre, they can have a startup and explore. If it does not work, they can go for placement again,” shared Chakraborty.
