Admission for M.Sc 1st Year Microbial Biotechnology

Chandigarh, June 25, 2016: Keeping in view the enormous importance of microbes in the field of Biotechnology, a new course "Microbial Biotechnology" was introduced in July, 2008 under the aegis of "Institute of Emerging Areas in Science and Technology" in the CIL building (Third Floor) of Panjab University, Chandigarh.
The course was targeted to generate active Industry-Academia Interaction. This curriculum has been designed with the aim to prepare industry ready manpower. The same has been made with the active participation of experts from the Industry and other academic institutes. The course has 20 + 2 (Only girl child) +2 (NRI seats) + 1 (AIDS/Cancer/Thalassemia) and other categories as per University rules. This year i.e. 2016-17 the admission for M.Sc. 1st Year of the department will be held on 12th July, 2016 at 2:00 p.m. onwards in the department i.e. top floor of CIL building. The course received tremendous response from the students which can be gauged from the fact that almost all the one seats are filled in the first counselling every year. The success of the course can be gauged from the fact that now this Centre has been granted the status of a Department of the University from 2014. This Department has four regular faculty members and in addition to this there a number of guest teachers coming from other departments, institutes and industry. The faculty has collaborations with other academic institutes and industry. The faculty members have government and industry funded projects. The faculty also has a number of patents to its credit.
The Department faculty is also leading some of the programs/projects sanctioned by the Government of India, like University Innovation Cluster in Biotechnology (UIC-B) sanctioned by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) and the Policy Research Centre (PRC) (sanctioned by DST, Govt. of India). The intent of University Innovation Cluster in Biotechnology (UIC-B) is to generate collaborative initiatives and foster not only the interdisciplinary but multidisciplinary approach. This will impact the socio-economic landscape of the Cluster under University, research institutes and industry. The focus will be to reach out to young students, entrepreneurs and faculty to encourage them to come out with innovative ideas and take them to proof of concept in collaboration with industry.
The other activity of UIC-B will be to generate a culture entrepreneurship so that there are a few successful start-ups established by students, faculty, researchers or outsiders leveraging support. This will help enhance the number of skilled, industry ready human resource. The key focus of R&D in the Cluster would be on high value commercials. The proposed duration of the project is four years. A total sanctioned project cost is 2.59 Crores. This center would act as a model and a
Centre for Excellence for other University departments for fostering Innovation and entrepreneurships and in totality would create an academic and industrial cluster around the University. The major objective of CPR is to guide DST for enhanced interaction between academia and industry as well as formulation of Science and Technology Indicators (STI’s) for India. The academic delivery model of the department goes beyond the classroom education to provide a holistic learning experience. The pedagogy ensures that its students are better prepared for the challenges of the industry and excel in their chosen profession. The focus of the department is on hands-on learning. This approach ensures that the students move beyond the classroom and learn real-time environments, preparing them to face professional challenges head-on and be industry ready.