The aim of this scheme is to promote faculty and student scholarship and intellectual contributions. Under this scheme, faculty and students can take up Minor Research Projects that have a focus on a wide range of topics and have an impact on society. Under this head, a faculty member or a student (or a group of faculty members or students) can apply for Research Seed Money (financial support) with well-prepared proposals when official calls are made twice an academic year. A scrutiny committee chaired by the Principal, under the coordinator-ship of the Dean, R&D will make recommendations to the management for the final approval of the awardees. RSET Research Seed Money Scheme 2022 has the following specific objectives.

(a) To promote research among faculty members and students of RSET.

(b) To facilitate publication in indexed journals.

(c) To convert research projects into products, patents, and consultancy work.

Following guidelines are set for the successful working of the RSET Research Seed Money Scheme

1) Any faculty member of RSET who has put in a minimum of 2 years of continuous service, has been confirmed in service and does not have any ongoing projects from RSET OR a full-time Bachelor's, Master's, or Ph.D. student can submit a proposal for research seed money under Minor Research Project.

2) The seed money can be up to a maximum of Rs 50,000/- for a project for a year.

3) Research expenses shall include the hiring of expertise/human resources, purchase of equipment, software or services, expenses towards data collection, and source materials, publication charges (up to 10,000 INR) etc. However, research expenses on travel, printing and stationery, contingency, etc shall not exceed 20% of the approved funding.

4) Research expenses will be disbursed as 25% in advance and the balance progressively, based on actual expenditure incurred, duly supported by original bills and vouchers. By the end of 80% of the project duration, a total of 80% shall be disbursed based on actual expenditure incurred, duly supported by original bills and vouchers. The remaining 20% is disbursed on the completion of the project report in the prescribed format along with the bills and vouchers.

5) The duration of the research project shall be up to 12 months with an extension of 3 months with the prior written permission of Principal. An additional extension of few months can be given for the registration related to the publication of research articles and patents with the prior written permission of Principal, as per his/her discretion.

6) No special leave is permissible for carrying out these research projects.

7) No exemption from regular work assignments is permissible, other than what is stated in staff policy.

8) RSET Research Seed Money can also be used towards patenting of staff or student ideas. In that case, RSET shall be made a party of the patent with not less than 50% stake in case of single-person patents or 33% of the stake in case of a multi-person patent that is applied through this scheme.

9) At least one research paper (in SCOPUS/SCI/SCIE indexed journal) or a patent or an external consultancy grant must be published/received within a period of one year from the submission of the research report, from the relevant project. This outcome will be taken into account when the PI applies for future projects under Research Seed Money Scheme.

10) Agreement of Commitment has to be executed. This is an undertaking by the faculty member to complete the research within the specified period and to refund the funded amounts in full in the event of the Principal Investigator, discontinuing service, during the research period.

11) Progress Report with prescribed details has to be completed every three months till the completion of the project.

12) Repeat Grant is given to a faculty member only after a gap of one year from the successful completion of a minor research project.

13) Publication under this scheme will not be eligible for any other monetary incentives from RSET.

14) In the event of non-submission of the research report within the stipulated time, the faculty members (Principal Investigator) are obliged to refund the entire amount claimed under the policy.

The RSET Research Seed Money Scheme serves as a steppingstone for the faculty members and students to take seed project concepts in frontier areas of engineering and technology and other subjects taught in the college into fruition. Our parent university provides further opportunities to seek higher amounts of research funding. However, projects with more financial support can be pursued by faculty members through external funding agencies.