Obstacles in doing research in Bangladesh
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I am a university teacher and have intention to continue research work in a developing country like Bangladesh. We have few resources and rare funding in doing research in tertiary level. Not only government but also private organization is not interested to invest money in basic research work. So it is difficult for a new researcher to continuing his/her work. There are also other factors that hinder someone desires to be a researcher here. Therefore he/she have to struggle to raise fund and other related activities. The salary of teacher is not standard in Bangladesh in perspective of expenditure. That is another reason that makes one silent in this area. However, there are many people who are enthusiastic and energetic to continue his/her dream and passion. As a result, hardworking and determination sometimes makes one happy and contribute to the society.
Case study 1
Now I am a co supervisor of a master student who is doing his thesis work. He wants to study the neuro-pharmacological action of medicinal plant extract on mice. Everyday he has to feed animals and come to university. One day he fell in problem because it was public holiday and he has no access to feed the animal and I was shocked because it is our continuous work. Sometimes we have to face other problems. For example hartal or nationwide strike that slows our activities to a great extent. No students want to come to University because of fear, insecurity and others. In this condition it is really hard to do continuous work.
Case study 2
Last day I was hurry because the next day was hartal day. Sometimes people are so arrogant that they burnt public transport before hartal day. So we have to cautious about risk at the road. I have five experiments and estimated time was 5 hours. But I have to close work within 3 hours because of early returning home. I felt sad but nothing to do in that circumstance.
Moreover, I am still optimistic and doing my work as usual. I just spreading concept to my students who are very much interested. In that way we will overcome all obstacles in our path.
Comments
I can understand your frustration. Public money for basic research has become hard to get everywhere in recent time. Governments are encouraging more private sectors to invest in R&D. Obviously, private sector will not invest in basic research which will take long time to bring any return. Bangladesh cannot be an exception. However, we have to keep our motivation high in order to carry out the work.
I found your piece interesting. Please provide more information next time you write something like this.
I wish you put your name in the end of the piece.
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জয় হোক মানবতার ।। জয় হোক জাগ্রত জনতার
Thank your very much for reading my writing here. I am a private University teacher and we have no fund from govt. By the by we have to optimistic and do research by hook or by crook. Any way I would like to write here as Al Rashid.
Al Rashid
This is a very interesting piece. I am a researcher myself and occasionally ponder on the current research status and ability to conduct research in Bangladesh.
I think we should focus more on applied research, as securing the funding for basic research is always tough. I am an engineer by training and I sincerely believe that there are many engineering research which can be done in BD and for which funding is available. For instance, consider the area of cost-effective conversion of wastes to valuable chemicals. I am sure, many industrial giants in BD would be interested to fund.
We should also actively look for collaboration. Its a strong advantage if you collaborate with researchers in other areas. A group can achieve more than what a single scientist can achieve, even in the most harsh conditions. A collaboration with foreign researchers could provide you the data which is expensive or even impossible to generate in BD.
You are almost right in doing applied research here in Bangladesh. I am a pharmacist by profession and teacher by choice. A few R & D works (basic) are doing by the pharmaceutical companies in Bangladesh. No one is interested to establish a world class bio medical laboratory here. That is my concern if possible. Moreover, collaboration is necessary for continuing advance research as we have scarcity of expertise in world context.
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