Policy for Industry Consultancy Services

  1. Introduction

    The policy for consultancy envisions to develop a channel to provide knowledge and expertise to generate revenue for Dr. Ambedkar Institute of Technology, Bengaluru - 56 herein after referred to as “Dr.AIT” from industry and other external institutions/sources for providing solutions to challenging problems. It shall also provide the framework for promoting academia-industry interaction for catalysing innovation, growth and for accelerating the development of new break-through. This policy shall ensure that consultancy undertaken by the faculty are consistent with the objectives of the institution and the costs are sustainable.

  2. Scope of Consultancy Services to be offered

    1. Consultancy Services shall be offered to Industries, Service Sectors, Govt. or private agencies, including National and International agencies in the niche areas of expertise available in the institution by any individual or a group of teachers of the Institution alone or jointly with the expert(s) from other institutions.
    2. The services offered shall be along the lines of “Professional Services” and hence carry with them the obligations and ethical requirements associated with such services as indicated in the standard terms and conditions (Appendix 1).
    3. Consultancy services offered shall cover a variety of activities such as Adequacy reports, Feasibility Studies; Academic investigation; Development of Technology; Monitoring and evaluation works; Training & development activities; Technology Assessment; Assessment of Designs; Material, Energy, Environmental, Manpower or any other type of Analysis and Audits; Product Design; Process Development, Software Development; General Trouble- shooting, Retrofitting Exercises, Intensive efforts for transfer of highly focused skills and expertise to select groups in specific organizations, vision and strategy statement and so on. Other extension activities may include action research, and carrying out surveys, documentation etc.
    4. The routine academic activities like thesis/dissertation adjudication, question paper setting and moderation, examination, editorial, reviewer activities, book royalty, honorarium for Expert Committee meetings, invited lectures, invited training programmes, organization of conferences/workshops etc. shall not be covered under this policy.
    5. Activities which are too complex to handle, by virtue of certain constraints inherent in any academic and research environment shall not normally be taken up irrespective of the availability of expertise and perceived needs of the clients.
    6. All such activities of consultancies shall be taken up by the faculty members to an extent that it should not affect the teaching and research activities.

  3. Classification and categorization

    Consultancy and related services offered shall be classified as:

    1. Individual Consultancy means the consultancy that is brought to Dr.AIT by personal initiative of any faculty member(s) like expert advice and development of Projects. These types of projects shall be expertise-intensive and based on the expertise of the Consultant.
    2. Institutional Consultancy that deals with consultancy received by the institution like Testing Projects and others. These types of projects shall be infrastructure intensive and based on usage of the Institution infrastructure and resources.

  4. Administration of Consultancy services

    1. In case of individual consultancy, the consultant shall have the flexibility to chart out the overall administration of the project, costing of consultancy, and other administration activities of consultancy. The consultant shall require sending the information of the consultancy (s/he intends to take) to the Principal through the DEAN (III)’s Office and the Department HEAD along with the full details of the consultancy as per the prescribed proforma (Form for undertaking consultancy Work).
    2. In case of institutional consultancy projects, the services shall be monitored by a Consultancy Administrative Committee consisting of the following:
      1. Institution HEAD/Principal
      2. Department HEAD
      3. Department Senior Professor
      4. IIC Department Coordinator
      5. DEAN (III)
    3. The committee shall be responsible for overall administration of the project.
      1. The committee shall workout the costing of Consultancy.
      2. The committee shall approve the expenditure for the project.
      3. The committee shall also act as selection committee for the project staff or other. such requirements (if any) for successful and timely completion of the project.
      4. The committee shall recommend necessary measures, if required, for successful completion of the work for the approval of the Principal/Competent Authority.

  5. 5. Project terms and conditions

    Each project shall be undertaken either under Standard Terms and Conditions (Appendix 1) or specific agreement. The work shall be taken up in good faith between the consultant and the client, the obligations and responsibilities of both parties being limited by the standard terms and conditions or Memorandum of Understanding describing the details of contract. If, the execution of the projects involves non-disclosure agreements, it shall be carried out on the basis of terms and conditions mentioned in the contracts/MoU signed between the parties.

  6. Eligibility for Undertaking Consultancy

    1. Consultancy assignments shall be taken up by any faculty members of the Institution.
    2. The services of any Institution employee shall be utilized for the execution of the consultancy projects as per mutual understanding provided that it does not affect their primary functions and responsibilities to the Institution. In such cases, they shall be paid TA, DA and honorarium etc. as per the entitlement/rule. In case no rule is available for any particular level employee and/or any other activity, the expenditure for these shall be made by the consultant towards consultancy work with the approval of the Principal/Competent Authority.
    3. The student(s) may be involved in consultancy projects provided it does not affect their academic commitments and performance. Remuneration may be paid to these students as per rules from the Consultancy Project.
    4. There may be requirement of skilled and semi-skilled staff or daily labour for a project, the wages to them shall be paid as per rules from the Consultancy Project.

  7. General rules

    1. Travel out of the campus on account of consultancy activities shall be undertaken with intimation to the Department HEAD. Students can travel with permission of the Department HEAD.
    2. Consultancy projects may be initiated by requests/enquiries from individual or group of faculty members directly to the industry or through discussion between the industry and the Consultant(s).
    3. When the enquiry is directly received by the Institution, the work shall be assigned to specific consultants or groups of consultants depending on their expertise, by the DEAN (III)’s office with the approval of the Principal/Competent Authority.
    4. The consultancy charges, once finalized, shall not be negotiable. However, if the scope is altered by mutual agreement, a fresh estimate shall be considered.
    5. It is desirable that for Preliminary Discussions/Site Visits in addition to travel and incidental expenses, leading to the generation of consultancy proposals may be charged as per the existing policy of Dr.AIT.
    6. The Consultant shall be aware of the potential for the generation of Intellectual Property during the execution of projects. The Intellectual Property Policy of the Institution shall govern all decisions and actions concerning the generation, handling, protection and commercialization of the Intellectual Property. All rights pertaining to any intellectual property generated/created/invented in the due course of the project, shall be the joint property of Dr.AIT and the Client, if both the parties agree. The terms and conditions regarding transferring/assigning/selling these rights to the client shall be governed by a separate written agreement, if required.
    7. The services of external consultants (especially retired Faculty/Research Scientists/Research Engineers) shall be utilized to a limited extent in order to provide comprehensive services to the clients. The consultant fees payable to External Consultants shall not exceed 10% of the share of the consultant.
    8. All necessary charges including transportation, taxes, demurrages etc. shall be borne by consulting agency/organization for transferring all the samples/goods/equipment etc. to the consultant(s) of the Institution.
    9. On completion of the project, the equipment, apparatus, software, computers & accessories bought under the agreement shall become the property of the Institution.

  8. Costing of Consultancy Projects shall include:

    1. Consultant Fees (CF)
    2. Charges for all the Personnel engaged in the work including laboratory personnel.
    3. Operational Expenses (OE): These include expenses incurred on consumables, contingencies, testing, analysis, travel and daily allowance, remuneration for students and all other expenses related to the consultancy project.
    4. Any other expenditure related to consultancy.
    5. Capital Equipment (CE): This will include charges for the purchase of specific equipment/software for implementation of consultancy projects.
    6. Service tax and other taxes as applicable shall be provided in the project cost.

  9. Disbursement of consultancy payment

    1. All the consultancy payment shall be taken in the Institution Consultancy account for the purpose from where all payments shall be disbursed.
    2. The disbursement of total amount received under consultancy project shall be executed by the accounts section – Dr.AIT, on written demand of the consultant and recommendation of the Department HEAD in case of individual consultancy involving Category–1. In Category-2 consultancy project/s, the payment to consultant shall be made on recommendation of the Administrative Consultancy Committee and approval of the Principal/Competent Authority.
    3. The total amount received for the consultancy shall be shared in a ratio of 60:40 between the Consultant(s): Institution respectively. The consultant shall bear all the expenses related to the project from her/his share. The payment of the fee to the consultant(s) shall be made in advance or after the completion of the project as per the agreed terms. The consultancy amount is to be transferred to the Dr.AIT Consultancy Account.
    4. If two or more consultants work jointly, the funds shall be divided as per mutually agreed terms in advance at the time of consultancy agreement.
    5. The consultant can place purchase order for equipment through stores with prior approval from Department HEAD, DEAN (III)’s office, and Principal.
    6. Earnings for Technology Transfer, Revenue Sharing and Royalty shall be governed by the Intellectual Property Policy of the Dr.AIT.
    7. On completion of each project, the consultant shall submit undertaking that s/he has completed the work successfully and shall get a certificate from the industry/entity in this respect and attach with the disbursement form.
    8. The Consultant shall maintain complete record of the consultancy work.
For any queries, please contact:

Dr.Gowrishankar S.

DEAN (Industry-Institute-Interaction),
Professor,
Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering,
Dr.Ambedkar Institute of Technology,
Bengaluru - 560056.

Appendix 1

STANDARD TERMS AND CONDITIONS

  1. DECLARATION: All work undertaken by Dr.AIT, as part of the project shall be in good faith and based on material/data and other relevant information given by the Client requesting for the work.
  2. CONFIDENTIALITY: Due care shall be taken by Dr.AIT, to maintain confidentiality and discretion regarding confidential information received from the Client, including but not limited to results, reports and identity of the client.
  3. REPORTS: Any test or other consultancy report given to Dr.AIT, shall be based on work performed according to available standards or open domain literature. In any event, this report may not be construed as a legal document, certificate or endorsement and may not be used for marketing of the products or processes, without prior consent from Dr.AIT and the client. The institute reserves the right to retain one copy of the report and use the results of the project for its internal teaching and research purposes.
  4. WORK PERFORMANCE: Every effort shall be made to complete the specified work according to the planned time schedule. However, Dr.AIT, shall not be held responsible for delays caused beyond its reasonable control.
  5. CONFLICT OF INTEREST: Dr.AIT shall take up work for other clients also in the same area, provided, to the best of the Institution knowledge, there is no conflict of interest in undertaking such projects.
  6. PAYMENT: The payment of consultation charges to Dr.AIT, are to be made in advance or after the completion of the project as per the agreed terms, through a demand draft / crossed valid cheque, drawn in favour of The Principal, Dr.AIT, Bengaluru and sent to the Consultant. The charges shall also include any applicable tax as prescribed by the Government of India from time to time.
  7. TERMINATION: The project work shall be terminated by either of any party by giving the other party a notice period of 30 days. However, both parties will meet any residual obligations in connection with the project.
  8. LIABILITY: Dr.AIT shall not be held liable for any loss, damage, delay or failure of performance, resulting directly or indirectly from any cause, which is beyond its reasonable control (Force Majeure).
  9. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS: All rights pertaining to any intellectual property generated/created/invented in the due course of the project, shall be the joint property of Dr.AIT and the Client, if both the parties agree. Terms and conditions regarding transferring/assigning/selling these rights to the client shall be governed by a separate written agreement.
  10. RESOLUTION OF DISPUTES: Any disputes arising out of the project shall be amicably settled by both the organizations. Any unsettled disputes may be subject to resolution as per the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (and up to date amendments) and within the Courts exercising jurisdiction in Bengaluru City.

    11. Faculty who are willing to apply for consultancy should download the document from the below link.

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RESEARCH & INNOVATION