Global e-commerce major Amazon is offering a flexible financial support to research students and also a few faculty at the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-Hyderabad).

“About 100 students are supported fully or partially under the programme. The firm gives us the flexibility on how to utilise the proceeds,” PJ Narayanan, Director of IIIT (Hyderabad), told BusinessLine .

Started about 18 months ago, the support doesn’t put any conditions or mandate research areas.

“Though the State government catalysed the establishment of the institute, we don’t get any public funds. We support ourselves. Funding support like this would help in bringing down cost of education in the long run,” he said.

Besides supporting a Chair and 100 students, the firm also provides assistance to research students submitting and taking part in international seminars.

The Research Student Support Programme is aimed at supporting Masters and Doctoral research students in their chosen area of study.

“Depending on the amount of outlay, the contribution would be used toward the expenses paid out of the designated fund. These can include tuition fee, full stipend to research students, travel grant for conferences, domestic and or international,” an Amazon spokesperson said.

“This grant contributed towards research groups to publish approximately 30 papers in 14 major international conferences and journals,” the spokesperson said.

The institute currently houses to over 114 PhD, 250 MS by Research and 1,550 MTech or BTech students.

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