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(05-282286)
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admin.gcbs@rub.edu.bt
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Gedu, Chukha
(05-282286)
admin.gcbs@rub.edu.bt
Gedu, Chukha
The research office at GCBS is the research, consulting, training and entrepreneurship development arm of the college. The college recognizes the importance of research as a key component of its mission. The office drives policy relevant business research, provides GNH value-based training in the field of business and management, engages in consulting projects, and facilitates creation of an enabling environment for student entrepreneurship. The Royal University of Bhutan has granted endorsement for the college to establish the research centre named 'Centre for Business Research and Entrepreneurship Development (CBRED)'
The college continually strives to strengthen its research culture and capacity to effectively address the key research areas such as relevance, necessity, efficiency and effectiveness. To this end, there are research supports put in place both at the university and the college level. These research grants are currently available only to the staff/faculty and the students of the college. The research office helps the researchers in securing grants from university, college grants, and other funding agencies.
The AURG research block grant, a competitive research grant, is administered annually by the Department of Research and External Relations, Office of the Vice Chancellor, Royal University of Bhutan. Available annual research funding is distributed to individual researchers or research teams through merit-based and peer-reviewed processes. As the grant is output-based, it is monitored through the successful submission of research output on regular intervals. In order to distribute the grant through a just and fair means, the university categorizes the applicants into four groups based on their individual research profile: Beginner Researcher (BR), Mid-Career Researcher (MCR), Advance Career Researcher (ACR), and Teaching Learning Researcher (TLR). The different amounts of funds are allocated for each research category.
The Research and Endowment Fund (REF) was instituted with funding support from the government. The Royal University of Bhutan (RUB) manages and operates with the standing guidelines. The scope of REF limits to the designated purposes only such as research grants and scholarships as deemed necessary by the REF Board. Application calls for the fund are floated annually and the award is based on competitive merit evaluated by the technical experts.
The Royal University of Bhutan has established an Innovation Fund Grant aimed at encouraging university staff across various colleges and departments to present innovative ideas that enhance the university's processes and service efficiency. This grant focuses on supporting practical and creative initiatives to improve the institution's functioning, rather than funding research activities. Successful proposals will receive financial backing to implement these improvements, fostering a culture of continuous innovation and development within the university.
While the college has always advocated research-informed teaching and learning, lack of adequate research funds, and feeble research culture among others hindered in promoting research. This has allowed the college to institute an Annual College Research Grant, earlier known as In-house Research Grant (IRG) in 2016 and Special Grant on National Issues in 2024. These grants aim to encourage and enhance research activities that contribute to knowledge creation, innovation, and societal development. They support a wide range of research projects, fostering collaboration across disciplines and often aligning with institutional or national priorities.
The Annual College Research Grant (ACRG) aims to promote a strong research culture within the college by supporting competitive, high-quality research projects. Its objectives include fostering research-based teaching and learning, enhancing faculty research productivity, and encouraging collaboration among researchers at different career stages. The grant expects researchers to produce impactful outcomes aligned with the college's priorities, including evidence of publications, presentations, and timely submission of progress reports to demonstrate research progress and results.
The Special Grant on National Issues (SGNI) focuses on supporting research projects that address Bhutan's national development priorities, especially those aligning with the 13th Five-Year Plan. Its objectives are to promote innovative research that supports socio-economic growth, sustainable development, and interdisciplinary collaboration between academia, industry, and government. The grant expects meaningful and practical research contributions, requiring dissemination of findings through workshops, policy briefs, and publications to influence policy and national development strategies.
'Zhib Tshol' RUB Research Policies is the primary reference regarding research for members of the university and anyone involved in research with the university. The policies define the official policies, procedures, and structure of the university governing all aspects of research. It also aims to inform and educate readers about the process and conduct of research, and is meant to be a useful tool that supports researchers in the university. It further seeks to encourage and enable collaboration amongst university member colleges with the wider research and academic world.
Zhib TsholIn order to create uniformity and transparency in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, as well as research output dissemination process, the college has developed a policy document 'GCBS Research and Consultancy Policy 2022'. The policy was developed in line with the Royal University of Bhutan Research Policies 'Zhib Tshol'. The policy defines the procedures and structure of the college governing all aspects of research related activities. The policy seeks to encourage and enable sharing of information through engagement in research, consultancy, research events, and other modes of international exposures. The policy also contains research/consultancy support services and guidelines for the students.
Entrepreneurship is one of the strategic thrust areas for the Royal Government of Bhutan. In line with the government's plan, the Royal University of Bhutan's Strategic Plan (2018 - 2030) focuses on entrepreneurship development. The University aspires to create a culture of entrepreneurship in the colleges through education, skills development, and entrepreneurial practices. In this line, the college established Entrepreneurship Development Cell for promoting entrepreneurship culture and practice. The Cell facilitates building entrepreneurial skills such as support to incubate business ideas through the College incubation centre and invites practicing entrepreneurs to share their success and failure stories.
The college also provides professional services in the various fields for the individual/organisation clients out the college. The professional service in the form of research/problem-based consultancy and also the training are facilitated by the CBRED. Any staff engaged in providing professional services is guided by the standing college research and consulting policy and guidelines. The training programmes are developed and delivered by the college faculty members based on the needs of the organisation or in the market. The Centre provides tailored made programmes to both pre-service and in-service participants. For enquiry related to training and consultancy, please write to us at dril.gcbs@rub.edu.bt.
The college conducts research events like symposium, seminar, workshop and conferences at regular intervals to provide the flexible and versatile platforms for sharing knowledge, ideas and experiences. The events that facilitate a common platform for academic scholars, researchers, corporate leaders, government officials, industry experts, and people from varied backgrounds to discuss the roles of business in creating a sustainable world shall be prioritized. The research events are carried out at different levels such as international, national, or college depending on the nature of the events. We also collaborate with other industries or educational institutions for conducting joint international conferences.
In order to disseminate the new information timely to the community, the college strives for a variety of publications such as research journals, newsletters, annual reports and other project reports/policy briefs.