New Delhi, July 26: The Centre has proposed to set up National Research Foundation (NRF) with a total outlay of Rs 50,000 crore over a period of five years to strengthen the research ecosystem in the country and build an Aatmanirbhar Bharat, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

One of the main objectives of NRF is to seed, grow and facilitate research at academic institutions, particularly at universities and colleges, where research capacity is currently in a nascent stage. It will also fund and support high-impact, large-scale, multi-investigator, multi-institution and, in some cases, interdisciplinary or multi-nation projects in collaboration with relevant Ministries, Departments, and other Governmental and non-Governmental entities, especially industry.

The Centre announced the National Education Policy, 2020 (NEP) on 29-07-2020, after a gap of 34 years. The policy envisages transformational changes in the education sector. One of the major recommendations in this regard is to promote more and more use of regional languages in education. In this regard, the Government has taken a number of steps.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address via video conferencing the event to mark one year of the New Education Policy on July 29.

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will also address the event.