AICTE Directs Engineering Colleges, Tech Institutes to Draft ‘Conflict of Interest’ Policy for Start-ups by Faculty Members
The All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) has directed engineering colleges and other technical institutes in the country to draft a “conflict of interest” policy for start-ups established by faculty members to guarantee their regular duties don’t endure.
The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry’s technical education regulator had as of late thought of policy for students’ start-ups in technical institutes. Be that as it may, there is no policy characterizing the rules and regulations for the faculty members associated with start-ups on campuses.
As per the policy for students’ start-ups, participation in start-up related activities by faculty members will be viewed as legitimate. This is notwithstanding teaching, research and development projects, industrial consultancy and management duties and must be considered while evaluating the annual performance of the faculty.
“For better coordination of the entrepreneurial activities, norms for faculty to run start-ups should be created by institutes. Only those technologies should be taken for faculty start-ups which originate from within the same institute,” a senior AICTE official told PTI.
“Institutes should work on developing a policy on ‘conflict of interest’ to ensure that the regular duties of a faculty member don’t suffer owing to his or her involvement in the start-up activities,” the official said.
As per the AICTE, the faculty members are allowed to set up their very own start-ups even without the involvement of students, yet they should recognize the on-going research at the establishment from the stir done toward the start-up.
“Role of faculty members may vary from being an owner, direct promoter, mentor, consultant or as on-board member of the start-up. Faculty start-up may consist of faculty members alone or students or faculty of other institutes or alumni or other entrepreneurs,” the official said.
“Faculty must clearly distinguish the on-going research at the institute from the work conducted at the start-up or company. In case of selection of a faculty start-up by an outside, national or international, accelerator, a maximum leave (either paid or unpaid) of one semester or even more, depending upon the decision of review committee constituted by the institute, may be permitted to the faculty,” he added.
The council has cautioned that the faculty must not acknowledge blessings from the start-up and not include research staff or other staff of establishment in activities toward the start-up.
“Human subject related research in a start-up should get clearance from ethics committee of the institute,” the official said.
The start-up policy told by the AICTE a month ago has been created to encourage the HRD Ministry’s endeavours to bring consistency crosswise over advanced education institutes as far as protected innovation proprietorship management, innovation authorizing and institutional start-up policy.
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