The Department of Science and Technology (DST) is implementing Cognitive Science Research Initiative (CSRI) to foster research in this highly interdisciplinary area by combining ideas, principles and methods of psychology, computer science, linguistics, philosophy and neuroscience, etc.
Giving this information in the Rajya Sabha, Union Science and Technology Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said, in last five years, 115 individual projects, 39 post-doctoral fellowships and 20 conferences/ seminars/workshops have been supported under CSRI.
Over 130 research papers have been published in peer reviewed journals in projects supported. Further, a National Neuroimaging Facility has been established at the University of Allahabad with CSRI support. The Department has spent around Rs.103 crore to support various activities under CSRI in last five years and around 153 projects have been supported in 18 states/ UTs. The Department has started multi-centric research projects in different thematic areas to increase the number of research proposals for financial support under the Cognitive Science Research Initiative, the minister said in reply to a question.
The DST, he said, is collaborating with various national institutions to improve the research opportunities. Some of these are NIMHN, Bengaluru; National Brain Research Centre, Manesar; AIIMS, New Delhi, and IIT, Delhi and Kanpur.