---
title: "Anusandhan National Research Foundation (NRF) — Definition"
description: "The Anusandhan National Research Foundation is India's top research-funding body, established in 2023 to promote research across institutions."
url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/glossary/anusandhan-national-research-foundation"
---

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Model Diplomat Research Team · Last reviewed June 22, 2026

TL;DR

- The Anusandhan National Research Foundation is India's apex statutory body, established in 2023, to fund, coordinate, and promote research across universities, colleges, and research institutions.
- How does the NRF differ from the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)?
- What is the financing structure of the NRF's ₹50,000 crore corpus?
- Who chairs the NRF's Governing Board?
- What policy document recommended establishing the NRF?

[Civil Service & Diplomatic Exams](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/civil-services/glossary)Updated June 22, 2026

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### Supporters

The Anusandhan National Research Foundation (NRF) was constituted under the Anusandhan National Research Foundation Act, 2023, which received presidential assent on 28 August 2023 after Parliament passed it earlier that month. The legislation simultaneously dissolved the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), created in 2008, and subsumed its functions, assets, and liabilities into the new body. The NRF's intellectual lineage traces to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which recommended an autonomous overarching funding agency to overcome the fragmentation of Indian research support across multiple ministries. The Act establishes the NRF as a body corporate with perpetual succession, headquartered in New Delhi, mandated to seed, grow, and promote research and development and to foster a culture of research and innovation throughout the nation's universities, colleges, research institutions, and laboratories.

### Opponents

The Foundation has attracted scrutiny on several fronts. Critics in the scientific community have questioned the realism of mobilising ₹36,000 crore from private and philanthropic sources within five years, noting that Indian corporate R\&D spending and research-directed CSR remain modest by international comparison. Concerns have also been raised about the concentration of governance authority at the apex political level and about the autonomy of grant decisions. Observers have further noted that the absorption of SERB's recurring budget into the NRF means a portion of the headline corpus reflects redirected rather than wholly new funding. The Foundation's success will be measured against India's persistently low gross expenditure on R\&D, which has hovered around 0.6–0.7 percent of GDP, well below the levels of comparator economies.

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In its inaugural Governing Board meeting in 2024, the Anusandhan NRF, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, identified strengthening research at state universities and colleges as a founding priority.

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