The Planning and Business Development (PBD) group performs as the main center of the institute for effective planning, monitoring, evaluation and project budgeting of all the R&D and externally funded projects.
PBD monitors the monthly, quarterly progress of the research activities of the institute and forward it to CSIR upon compilation. PBD also regularly maintains the project folder of all the projects and records the progress made in the R&D projects, both physical and financial, recommendations of internal monitoring committees, Research Council, Management Council, and completion reports of the projects. The important technical publications such as the annual plan and five-year plan documents are brought out by this division.
The PBD group of CBRI primarily addresses three issues simultaneously for each evaluation: (a) the type of science we do i.e. the science-system, which develops the technologies, (b) the social organization of the science or the organizational system that supports the research, and (c) adapting and learning system. Evaluation of a project is basically through three factors i.e. performance, cost and time. A proper evaluation helps judge merit or worth of the project, improve and generate knowledge. A constructive evaluation enables research teams to learn and make project adjustments during implementation, and revise objectives and methods so that the project makes a real contribution to development. Monitoring and evaluation is the key to the adaptive project management and reflective learning.
PBD provides assistance to the project team / project leaders in estimating the cost of inputs in terms of manpower, material, capital and other items. It assists the management in allocating the resources to different projects / activities based on the Zero Based Budget System. It coordinates with different sections namely Finance, Purchase, Administration and R&D divisions for the compilation of project-wise allocation and expenditure, and also monitors the R&D progress through conducting quarterly evaluation of each in-house R&D project. The group is also responsible for negotiation and drafting of various kinds of agreements related to projects sponsored by outside agencies.
The PBD Group of CBRI also provide services to enhance financial resources of the institute by coordinating business activities. The division provides a bridge between the institute and the outside agencies by supporting in existing areas of proven technologies and attracting new companies towards the technological development. PBD identifies and analyzes new areas of business in a planned and systematic manner for commercialization of technologies to public sector and private entrepreneurs. The institute lays considerable emphasis on the quality of its services to the stakeholders, mainly on deliverables against the externally funded projects. This activity is a measure to determine to what level the service or product meets the customer expectations, considering requirements in terms of both quality and service.
ACTIVITIES OF PBD GROUP
The PBD group mainly contributes to accomplish the following important tasks:
- To maintain individual folders for all the R&D and consultancy projects.
- Monitor and evaluate the progress made in the projects.
- Ease in modification / scheduling of the project in view of changing priorities, fast developments on technologies.
- Indicators to best use of resources (Human & Financial Resources).
- Review and allocate financial resources to projects on ZBB system.
- Preparation of Five Year Plan & Annual Plan documents for the institute.
- Assisting laboratory in negotiations and drafting of agreements for contracting projects.
- Manpower deployment and APAR
With regard to business development, the group activities include:
- Intellectual Property Management
The IPR system encourages creativity to maintain the technological superiority to sustain and enhance the economic benefits. The intellectual property includes patents, copy rights and design. The activities involve:
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- Motivating researchers for strong IP culture.
- Drafting patent specifications.
- Liaison with IPMD, CSIR for updating records.
- Development and maintenance of knowledgebase of patents filedTechnology Transfer
The activities regarding transfer of technologies developed at CBRI involve:
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- Preparation of technology profiles for a view at glance.
- Liaison with NRDC, PPD, CSIR.
- Negotiations, exchanges and feedbacks from entrepreneurs showing interest in CBRI technologies.
- Drafting and finalizing license agreement.
- Establishing license fee of processes.
- Royalty collection.
- Development of database of potential technologies for commercialization.
- Customer Satisfaction Evaluation
The activities involve:
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- Preparation of questionnaire to get the customer feedback on the quality of service provided.
- Liaison with the customer to get their valuable feedback.
- Providing necessary feedback to scientists in laboratory to improve the processes, wherever required.
- Interaction with Customer Satisfaction Evaluation Unit (CSEU), CSIR for Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) determination