India’s research funding challenge is often described as a shortage of money. But there is another problem that receives less attention: people and organizations willing to support science do not always have suitable ways to participate. Some seek financial returns, others want to strengthen research institutions, and many would rather support good science than manage research projects themselves. India needs more money for science, but it also needs better ways for those willing to contribute to put their resources to work. Consider the possibilities. An entrepreneur may want to help a university build a research programme. An alumnus may wish to support scientists at the institution where she studied. A company may see a technological challenge worth solving, while a philanthropist may be willing to back research whose benefits will accrue to society rather than to a balance sheet. Turning such willingness into meaningful support for research is the gap India needs to close. That calls for an all-of-government and all-of-society approach. Government departments and public institutions must work together to provide sustained investment and an enabling environment. Industry, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds, philanthropy, research institutions and citizens can contribute resources, expertise and ideas. India’s growing private wealth offers an opportunity to widen the base of support for science. The Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) is working to make such participation easier. Drawing on international experience while recognizing India’s own needs, it has developed two principal pathways for bringing non-governmental resources and scientific expertise together, with scope for additional arrangements in the future. Invest or Give Science often demands patience. Outcomes are uncertain, development may take years, and the benefits can extend far beyond those who originally financed the research. Some research offers identifiable commercial opportunities. Other work creates knowledge whose benefits are widely shared but difficult to capture as financial returns. Still other efforts build pre-competitive capabilities and research ecosystems from which many can benefit. These different needs call for different kinds of support. The Invest pathway, associated with the Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) initiative, seeks capital expecting financial returns. Corporations, global capability centres, family offices, pension funds, sovereign funds and the Indian diaspora can help research-driven enterprises develop and scale technologies that may take years to become commercially viable. The Give pathway, through ANRF Core, serves a different purpose. Individuals, philanthropic foundations, corporations and international organizations can support public goods and pre-competitive research ecosystems without expecting direct financial returns. Eligible research can also receive CSR support, strengthening universities, laboratories and collaborative programmes and creating new knowledge and scientific capabilities. The two pathways are not mutually exclusive. The same organization may invest internally in technologies closer to the market while supporting earlier-stage academic research through grants. Blended funding arrangements may offer still more possibilities, subject to appropriate safeguards. Supporting science does not require every contributor to become an expert in evaluating research proposals or managing grants. ANRF can provide that expertise, allowing contributors to support promising research without creating their own funding systems. There is no single doorway into Indian science. A company may join a national programme through pooled funding and co-finance a challenge of common interest. Larger contributors can help identify challenges that may be taken up through ANRF programmes. Those interested in a particular institution or project can support it through the institution concerned. Contributions may come while a proposal is being developed or after a grant has been awarded, including supplementary funding and post-award top-ups linked to agreed research milestones. Nor does every contribution have to pass through ANRF. Alumni can support their alma mater directly, while philanthropists and corporations can contribute to universities and laboratories, including through eligible CSR funding. Such efforts complement ANRF’s programmes. The government’s role is not to become the only gateway for research funding, but to encourage wider participation and catalyse the pooling of public and private resources. Clear Guardrails Openness, however, needs clear guardrails. Industry and philanthropists can suggest scientific and technological challenges, identify areas needing investment and offer ideas for better governance. But supporting an institution or proposal cannot mean participating in the decision on whether it receives funding. Conflicts of interest must be declared and carefully managed. ANRF must assess such inputs in the national interest through its established governance processes, subject to appropriate safeguards and Executive Council oversight and approvals, as applicable. These safeguards protect independent scientific review and funding decisions, while researchers retain responsibility for determining appropriate scientific methods, subject to ethical and regulatory requirements. Trust also depends on knowing what research support achieves. ANRF’s impact framework and impact white paper provide a foundation for assessing outcomes and communicating progress transparently. Digital tools such as Saral AI, social media and other public communication channels can make this information more accessible. A discovery layer around such content can make researchers and their work easier to find and spark new collaborations. The aim is to show not only where resources go, but what scientific, technological, economic and societal value they create. Private funding must complement, not displace, sustained public investment. Nor can any funding model promise that every project will succeed. Uncertainty is part of science, and even worthwhile research may produce unexpected results. Private philanthropy has a long tradition of supporting education, healthcare and social welfare. Scientific research deserves a more prominent place in that tradition because its benefits can extend far beyond the original contribution. Scientific knowledge can create value long after a grant ends. A finding may trigger another discovery. A young researcher trained on one project may carry those skills to another institution. A laboratory created today may answer questions that nobody has yet thought to ask. Supporting research therefore strengthens a country’s capacity to confront future challenges, not merely today’s problems. There is another challenge too. India must become better not only at creating technologies but at diffusing them. A technology delivers its real value when it reaches the enterprise, hospital, farmer, city or community that can use it. ANRF’s growing emphasis on discovery videos, short research presentations, social media and wider public outreach can bring scientific advances to the attention of potential users and industry partners. Better connections between researchers and users can open pathways for adoption and take innovation beyond the laboratory. This points to a larger transition. India’s research ecosystem has historically depended heavily on government funding and public laboratories. Government will remain indispensable. But as India’s economy and private wealth grow, industry, philanthropy, alumni and other non-governmental sources can play a much larger role in the country’s research ambition. That does not mean government retreating from science. It means government acting as both funder and catalyst, using public investment to draw more participants, ideas and resources into the research ecosystem. India’s scientific future cannot be built by government or researchers alone. It needs a society willing to invest in discovery, strengthen institutions, share the risks inherent in research and help good ideas travel beyond the laboratory. The wealth India has created can now help create the knowledge, technologies and research institutions that will shape its future. (Dr. Kalyanaraman is the CEO, Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), New Delhi. Dr. Paknikar is the ANRF Prime Minister Professor, COEP Technological University, Pune and former Director, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune. Views personal.)
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