What is RP?

Research and Professional Practice or RP is an extensive and detailed parameter of NIRF that delves into the quality of the research output from an institute and the avenues for professional practice and growth from within and outside the institute. Sub-parameters of RP look at the number of publications from the institute and their quality through data from reliable sources and databases. It looks at the count of patents filed and published from the institute and gauges the footprint of the projects, professional practice and executive development programs through various means. The sub-parameters of RP are as follows:

• Combined metric for Publications (PU) - 30 marks

PU is based on the count of publications as available from Web of Science, Scopus, Indian Citation Index, etc., and divided by the faculty student ratio. Scores for the top 7 IITs are:

• Combined metric for Quality of Publications (QP) - 40 marks

It takes into account the citation count over 3 years, total number of publications, field normalized citation index and the number of publications in the top 25 percentile averaged over the past three years. Let's take a look at the scores for the top 7 IITs:

• IPR and Patents: Patents Filed, Published, Granted and Licensed (IPR) - 15 marks

IPR score is a culmination of the number of patents filed over the past three years, patents granted over the past three years, the number of patents published, earning from the patents over the past three years and the nominal number of faculty as calculated for FSR. The IPR scores for the older IITs are:

• Footprint of Projects, Professional Practice and Executive Development Programs (FPPP) - 15 marks

This takes into account 3 years’ average earnings at Institute level from research fundings, consultancy project funding and earnings from Executive Development Programs. FPPP scores for the top 7 IITs are as follows:

The IIT Madras Research Portal boasts of 44824 publications in total by 632 authors across 16 research units. The IRINS portal gives a count of 1562 publications. According to the Indian Citation Index, 19.71% of publications from IIT Madras have around 25.71% citations. IIT Madras has an average of 160 patents filed and published annually in recent years. IIT Madras has a significant footprint of the projects and professional practice in terms of research and consultancy funding touching averages of nearly 160 crores in the past 3 years and an average annual earning of 10-11 crores in the past three years from nearly 110 Executive Development Programs. The Centre for Outreach and Digital Education (CODE), IIT Madras has been launching a series of certification programs in areas that have high demand and are currently relevant and cutting edge. These programs are of duration anywhere between 1-6/9/12 months and offered in the online mode. CODE IITM conducts certification programs for exclusive upskilling of professionals already in the industry. 

The overall RP scores of the top 7 IITs are as follows:

IIT Madras tops the RP score by a very high margin compared to the other IITs indicating a conducive environment for breakthrough research and professional growth and development flanked by invaluable resources.