Calcutta Univ’s Zoology dept holds 2nd Academia to Industry Interface Conclave

Kolkata: The Calcutta University’s department of Zoology organised three-days second Academia to Industry Interface Conclave (a2i2 2023) starting from Friday till October 8.

During the inaugural session held on Friday, the speakers focused on the need to have an interdisciplinary collaboration and focus on conducting good research while ensuring that it can be used for the development of society.

Professor Madhusudan Das of Calcutta University’s Zoology department said: “Only doing good research is not the solution to practical things.” He said that there is a huge gap which needs to be considered and focus needs to be made on how good research can be used for the development of society. He further stated that collaboration among people from different fields is necessary. “We need not just multidisciplinary research but also multidisciplinary coordination,” he said.

Focus was also given to the Industry-Academia partnership in the new State Education Policy (SEP) 2023. It stated that there is an urgent need to link the knowledge produced in laboratories and classrooms with the industrial production process.

It was recommended that a proactive policy be developed to enrich the existing industry academia partnership programme in the state which would be mutually beneficial for both the higher education institutions and industries.

“In the present scenario, it is important to have a fusion of academia and industry for the benefit of both while ensuring development of the country at large,” Registrar of Calcutta University Debasis Das said.

Many speakers during the course of conclave stressed that in earlier days the objective was to get a job after fundamental research. According to Das, seeing the situation of the job market in present times, it seems challenging to carry on with the earlier goals.

Hence, a conclave like this is important for the researchers to understand the academia to industry interface. “Calcutta University will help in every possible way with these initiatives,” Das said.

Ena Ray Banerjee, head of the Zoology department of Calcutta University said that as the choice of subjects becomes polarised from time to time, it results in a saturation being created in the job market as well. When it comes to Zoology, the popular perception is that it is about microbiology and biotechnology.

“People who will give placement and potential employers need to first understand what the department offers. In the Zoology department, we work on macro subjects like population genetics and evolution to micro subjects like molecular biology and disease biology among others,” Ray Banerjee said.