Impact of SERC's funding on research in chemical sciences

Abstract

The paper assesses impact of Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) funding in chemical sciences during 1976–1989 using scientometric techniques. Other indicators like awards won, fellowship to prestigious academies, membership to editorial boards received by the project investigators, Ph.D. degrees awarded, collaborations established and new courses introduced due to SERC funding have also been analyzed. The study indicates that activity index of research out put in various frontier areas of chemical sciences have gone up despite a decrease in Indian activity index in these areas. The growth pattern of papers for “Organometallic and Organometalloidal Compounds” are similar for India and world. Contribution of SERC's project investigators in high impact factor (≥2) journals and the citations received by the papers published by them are higher than Indian contributions in chemical sciences. The SERC funding has resulted in a three fold increase in the number of Ph.D. degrees awarded in chemical sciences and SERC project investigators have won many prestigious awards, fellowship to academies and membership of the editorial board of the journals. The SERC funded research has also resulted in new courses at various universities.