Why is it in the News?

The cancellation of a call for proposals under the Department of Science and Technology's SATHI program by the Centre has raised concerns among higher education institutions.

About Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institutes (SATHI) initiative:

• The Department of Science and Technology (DST) is starting a project to create a shared Science and Technology infrastructure facility called Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institute (SATHI).
• This facility will be available for use by academic institutions, startups, manufacturing units, industries, and R&D labs.
• The goal is to offer efficiently managed services with high transparency, accessibility, and effectiveness all in one place, catering to the needs of industries, startups, and academia.
• In the first phase, SATHI facilities will be set up at IIT-Delhi, IIT-Kharagpur, and BHU-Varanasi.
• This initiative aims to benefit less-endowed organizations like MSMEs, startups, state universities, and colleges, fostering a strong culture of research collaboration across different institutions and disciplines.

Aims & Objectives of SATHI:

• Provide shared, professionally managed Science and Technology services and infrastructure.
• Ensure efficiency, accessibility, and transparency for the demands of faculty, researchers, scientists, and students from various institutes and organizations.
• Enable round-the-clock R&D activities with minimal downtime.
• Offer facilities for fabrication work, rapid prototyping, material testing, characterisation, device fabrication, smart manufacturing, and more.
• Attract and support R&D labs, industrial R&D, MSMEs, Incubators, Start-ups, etc.
• Organize short-term courses, workshops, seminars, and hands-on training programs on the use and application of various instruments and techniques.
• Provide technical help and scientific knowledge to both external and internal users/researchers.
• Train technicians for maintaining and operating sophisticated scientific instruments.
• Maintain a record of trained personnel for better societal outreach and utilization of trained manpower across different SATHI centers when needed.