At RUAS, faculty members are not only encouraged to pursue research, but are actively supported in it. 

From supervision and guidance to financial aid and training programs, the University offers a host of policies that are designed to assist faculty members along their research journeys. 

Waiver of 50% of Tuition Fees

RUAS extends a waiver of 50% of tuition fees for faculty members enrolling in research programs. At present, more than 100 faculty members are pursuing their PhDs.

Supervising PhD Students from other Universities

Over the years, RUAS has built a strong research program that is well-known among national and international academic circles. While faculty members are encouraged to supervise research scholars from the University, they are also given the opportunity to continue mentoring scholars from other universities if they have recently joined RUAS. For this, special approval must be received from the Faculty-level Doctoral Committee, the Dean, and the Pro Vice Chancellor. 

Research Funding and Scholarships

Research Funding

The University has collaborated with countless national and international government bodies, organisations, and corporations on research projects of societal significance. Organisations like ISRO, DRDO, DST, DBT, and ICMR, as well as various departments of the Government of Karnataka like IT, BT & ST, KCTU, VGST, and KSCST have provided finance and research grants to the University. Till date, RUAS has undertaken more than 120 funded research projects and has filed more than 150 patents. 

Additionally, many of RUAS’s faculty members are a part of Funding and Review Committees of various sponsoring agencies. 

Scholarships

The University encourages faculty members to apply for scholarships from industries and government organisations as part of the Academic Partnership Programme. 

For instance, Post-doctoral, Doctoral, and Young Researcher Fellowships floated by eminent funding agencies can be beneficial to faculty members. Such scholarships can not only enhance their professional expertise, but can also elevate their academic delivery and support graduate students.

Collaborative Research

Faculty members are encouraged to undertake collaborative projects with other academic institutions, R&D organisations, industries, and government bodies. 

The University too actively forges partnerships, and signs research agreements and NDAs with organisations in order to pave the way for faculty members to participate in collaborative research. Some such agreements include MoUs with Texas A&M University (TAMU), University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC), University of Texas at Arlington, University of Cincinnati, and St Petersburg University, Russia. 

The University has already worked closely with other Indian institutions like the University of Agricultural Sciences (Raichur and Dharwad), University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences (Shimoga), as well as several corporations.

Publications

RUAS encourages faculty members to publish in indexed journals like Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science. Every faculty member is expected to publish — on an average — at least one paper per annum in a reputed journal or in a reputed conference’s proceedings.

Publication details of faculty members are updated on their research profiles on the University website on a monthly basis. 

Existing publication details of all faculty members can be found at this link: 

https://​research​.msruas​.ac​.in/…

Additionally, the University publishes three journals — SASTech Journal, Journal of Dental and Orofacial Research, and Journal of Management and Commerce.

These journals have two issues every year (January and August), have no publication charges, and accept external manuscripts as well. 

RUAS also publishes Book of Abstracts (of student projects) and Reflections, a magazine dedicated to showcasing the academic and research achievements of the University. These are published annually and are the responsibility of the respective Publication Committees.

Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) include patents, copyrights, and other forms of ownership of rights to intellectual property generated within the University or jointly with third parties. The University policy on IPR can be found here: 

Seed Money for Research

Faculty members are encouraged to be a part of any one of the University’s 21 Research Centres or 2 Centres of Excellence. 

To ensure support of preliminary research, the seed money is provided by the University. Faculty members can apply for the seed money through the appropriate administrative chain (Heads of Research Center/​Department, Dean and forwarded for approval to Pro Vice Chancellor and Vice Chancellor’s office). The application for Seed Money is available with the Research Division.

Incentives

For details on incentives offered by the University, please refer to page 52 of the Employment Regulations.

Incentives for Research Funding

On completion of sponsored research projects, faculty members are eligible for incentives as per the policy reported in the table below.

Support for Attending National and International Conferences

Since attendance in conferences is mandatory for the publication of articles in most cases, the University makes efforts to support the travel and accommodation expenses of faculty members. However, this depends on the availability of institutional funds and faculty members are encouraged to use travel funds from sponsored research, grants-in-aid, and collaborative projects.

The application for institutional funds must be submitted to the Research Coordinator of the concerned Faculty. 

Allowances (TA/DA)

a) Local Conferences

• A registration amount not exceeding Rs. 5,000 will be paid by the University and only the presenter will be supported. 
• An all-inclusive subsistence allowance of Rs. 500 will be paid per conference to the presenter. 
• The original receipt for the Registration amount and a self-certified receipt for subsistence expenditure have to be submitted to the Research Coordinator of the concerned Faculty after the conference. 

b) Non-local/ National Conferences

• A registration amount not exceeding Rs. 5,000 will be paid by the University and only the presenter will be supported. 
• Travel expenses will be supported with the limit set at AC 3‑tier fares by the shortest, normal route.
• Accommodation and subsistence charges should be borne by the presenter. 
• The participant should submit the original receipt for the registration and must also submit a copy of the ticket.

c) International Conference

International travel to attend a conference will only be permitted if there is a sponsored research project that supports travel. Therefore, the details of allowances will be decided on a case-by-case basis depending on the norms set by the sponsor, the details of the collaborative agreements, etc.

Procedure for Filing Patents

RUAS encourages faculty members to protect their intellectual property by filing for patents every year. 

The Research Division assists in the filing of patents by sending an Invention Disclosure Form to all faculty members in August, every year. Faculty members are required to fill and submit the form to the Research Division to begin the process.

At present, the University has filed 150 patents and has been awarded 16 national and international patents. More details of the patents can be found on this link

Invitations to Talks and Lectures

When faculty members receive requests and invitations by external organisations to deliver talks or lectures, they are required to take formal written permission from their administrative chain (Head of Department and Dean of the Faculty). They must also clearly state the type of activity and the expected outcome of such activity. Special requests shall include delivering guest lectures and chairing committees. 

Training Programmes for Teaching/​Training/​Support Staff 

All staff members are encouraged to enhance their skills and knowledge by attending short-term training programs and participating in national and international conferences, seminars, and workshops. 

Employees who have put in more than two years of continuous service at RUAS are eligible for such deputations. Deans, in consultation with Heads of the Department, shall decide on the usefulness of such programs and recommend to the Pro Vice Chancellor’s office staff members who can benefit from the program. As far as possible, such recommendations should be avoided during active teaching periods.

Organising Conferences, Seminars, and Workshops

Faculty members have the autonomy to organise conferences, seminars, and workshops. However, permission for the same and approval of the budget must be sought from their respective administrative chain beforehard.

Faculty Achievements at National and International Level

All awards and faculty achievements at the national and international level must be included in the Department and Faculty profiles. Faculty members are requested to send the details of their achievement to the webmaster to upload on the University website. 

A copy of award recognitions and certificates must also be submitted to the University for accreditation purposes.

Consultancy

In keeping with the times, the University looks beyond the traditional R&D metrics of publications, sponsored research, and patents to now include industrial consultancy.

Consultancy can be defined as professional work conducted for industry or client organisations in order to aid in their technological growth. It gives faculty members the opportunity to leverage their knowledge to provide solutions to industry problems or to resolve challenges of economic and societal import. 

The University encourages faculty members to undertake consultancy in engineering, basic and life sciences, dental and pharmacy, social sciences and management, art and design, and hospitality management and allied domains. 

Consultancy projects include: 

• Subject expertise
• Problem solving
• In-vivo and in-vitro studies
• Drug discovery and development
• Cell line studies
• Testing and calibration
• Characterisation and laboratory-based experiments
• Market research and survey

The University has a Consultancy Policy as well as a set of guidelines in place to benefit faculty members, keep pace with changes in knowledge, and ensure global outreach. The University also proposes an incentive scheme between Principal Investigators (PI) and RUAS based on the attained net profit from the consultancy project on a case to case basis. The incentive scheme is arrived at by reviewing and benchmarking the consultancy policies of various universities across the country and the world.