Historically, industry and academia in India have mostly operated in silos, each advancing its objectives independently. However, the realization has now dawned that collaboration would help academia gain access to real-world problems and practical applications for its research, while industry benefits from the academic rigor and fresh perspectives that universities bring. 

Leading stakeholders recently discussed the establishment of clear agreements, open communication, and creating flexible frameworks for collaboration at the 4th edition of NextGen Chemical and Petrochemical Summit 2024 organized by the Indian Chemical News in Mumbai on July 11-12, 2024.  

The third session, ‘Industry & Academia: Creating Cutting Edge R&D and Innovation for Sustainable Growth’ was moderated by Rupark Sarswat, CEO, India Glycols Limited, Delhi. Outlining the importance of a knowledge driven economy, Sarswat said, "If we have to move to the next level, we need to utilize our wonderful talent and move towards innovation driven Industry."

Speaking on the need for closer industry academia collaboration, Dr K Nagaiah, Chief Scientist, IICT CSIR, Hyderabad called upon the universities to understand the needs of industry and focus more providing students with industry orientation. “The priorities have to be defined in terms of problem solving. The curriculum must be followed as per university guidelines but that doesn’t end the role of the teachers and students. They must spend time in the industry and likewise the industry representatives should be on the boards of educational institutions. The real world practical assignments are important for the graduates and they should take up the opportunities in the industry. Industry inputs must be used for designing the curriculum. The R&D projects must be collaborative in nature with defined goals. Private companies must provide them opportunities,” said Dr Nagaiah.

Anjani Prasad, Managing Director and Vice President Textile Effects, South Asia, Archroma lamented the lack of orientation towards latest technologies and open innovation within the current education system. He also pointed out the absence of clarity within intellectual property space and the dearth of patent filing experts. “The institutes require the infrastructure and money to run the laboratories. The private sector can play a role in revitalizing these. Despite the knowledge, we are far behind due to lack of collaborations between the academic institutes and with industry. Technologies like 3D printing have been around for a decade and in China they are doing 3D tissue printing while we are yet to have an institute on the subject. There are so many patents lying in dust in most reputed IITs. I have always talked about having an innovation portal. There is a dearth of good patent experts in India and we have to rely on others in Europe,” opined Prasad.

Dr Kamlesh Pai Fondekar, Head - Research & Development, Godrej Agrovet said, "If you look at the product cycle, there is development stage, growth stage and then maturity to decline phase. Time is a key factor in the first part and cost in the second part. The question is whether to do it yourself or in collaboration with academia to develop the product faster as they have skills and the relationship building skills, computational skills. If you delay your product launch by 6 months, you lose 50 percent of revenue as the data suggests. The industry must realize that collaboration with academia will help them do better. Once the molecule has reached the maturity, there is a need to stabilize and protect it, especially when the patent is reaching expiry date. There must be ways to extend their life through backward integration and other means. Each of the partners must use their elements of strength to partner."

“The amount spent on R&D as a percentage of GDP by South Korea is three and half percent; Japan is three and half percent, USA is three percent and China is two percent. India is less than one percent. Twenty years back, China used to provide cheap labour and if we are thinking on those lines today to make us a global manufacturing hub then probably it is not sustainable. There are more than 2,000 companies in China that are supplying essential parts for manufacturing defense sector components for the USA. In terms of futuristic thinking, industry has to bite the bullet. Even if currently it has to run the business as usual due to constraints, it must commit some portion of the revenue for R&D. Maybe CSR funds could also be used for the innovation under the collaborative model between academia and industry. These have to come together to use those funds to build the skill sets and create programs that are industry oriented. There is also the need for restructuring of the curriculum to suit the needs of the industry,” said Desh Deepak Misra, COO at Epsilon Carbon.

“There are few basic differences between education, training and skill development in India and abroad. When I was at Ohio State University, I found that most of the professors had above 10 years of experience, most of it in a specific industrial domain. The funding to the university by state is based on the relevant applications and relevant industry angle to it. The funding is dependent on the core competencies of the professor to attract the collaboration and funding. The teaching methods are project based that have practical application rather than just theoretical knowledge. There is focus on interpretation of theoretical knowledge into practical applications. India on the other hand has students that aren’t confident enough nor do they have clarity on what they want to do,” said Dr Prashant Puri, Head - R&D, Deepak Fertilizers and Petrochemicals Corporation.

“PI Industries is soon coming up with an indigenous molecule. We have a lead molecule and two in the pipeline. The digital tools including molecular modeling and machine learning simulations have played a great role in helping us to find them. In terms of workforce, we have around 40% of the team from academia. These consist of the PhD holders with post docs from universities abroad. They bring enormous knowledge and skills that has helped us. In R&D, the gap between academia and industry exists in a sense that the former will pursue the molecule continuously until they find an activity while the latter will set up an end time for the research. The launch of the product from the lab to the market must be faster. Since aggressive testing these molecules through trials is required, the collaboration with state laboratories could help besides the digital technologies that have a great role to play in accelerating the development of molecules," said Ankit Aggarwal, Director, RDIT, PI Industries.

The Summit was supported by DCM Shriram Chemicals as principal partner, Somaiya Vidyavihar University as academia partner, Cadmatic as platinum partner and Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board (APEDB), Govt. of Andhra Pradesh as state partner.

Gold partners for NextGen Chemicals & Petrochemicals were Epsilon Carbon, Forbes Marshall, Gharda Chemicals, Indofil Industries, Ingenero, IPCO, Jaaji Technologies, Moglix, PIP, Port of Antwerp - Bruges, RIECO and Re Sustainability. Associate Partners are: HPCL and Nuberg EPC.

Supporting partners included Aarayaa Advisory Services, Archroma, India Glycols and Tata Steel Special Economic Zone and industry association partners are: ACFI, AMAI, CropLife India, Gujarat Chemical Association and PMFAI.