SDG 5: Gender Equality | SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Institutions: Ministry of Women and Child Development | Ministry of Education
Union Minister of State for Women and Child Development has inaugurated the India Research Tour 2025 at the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi. Organised by Springer Nature in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the Tour is a nationwide academic outreach programme covering 29 institutions across 15 cities and 7 states, where sessions and workshops will be hosted on open access, research integrity, AI in publishing, and gender inclusion. Each participating institution, ranging from IITs (Kharagpur, Kanpur, Guwahati) and IIMs (Calcutta, Lucknow, Bodh Gaya) to major universities and medical colleges, will host local events engaging researchers, faculty, and students.
The Tour’s themes, Open Access (OA), One Nation, One Subscription (ONOS), and ethical scholarship, reflect India’s effort to democratise knowledge, improve research quality, and strengthen public trust in science. It is an attempt towards creating safe, equitable, and opportunity-rich environments in universities and research institutions, and supports initiatives such as Her Research, Our Future, which aim to mainstream women’s voices in academia and policy.
The India Research Tour 2025 operationalises the intersection of gender equality, academic integrity, and knowledge democratization-pillars of India’s evolving research ecosystem. By promoting Open Access and ethical research standards, it aligns with the National Research Foundation (NRF) agenda under the National Education Policy 2020, enabling inclusive participation and global visibility for Indian scholarship. It also advances SDG-aligned knowledge ecosystems that support ethical innovation and equitable access to scientific outputs.
What is the India Research Tour? → A collaborative outreach initiative by Springer Nature and the Ministry of Education, designed to connect with academic institutions across India to promote open science, research ethics, and inclusivity in scholarly publishing.
What is Springer Nature? → A leading global academic publisher and research services organisation headquartered in Germany, Springer Nature publishes some of the world’s most influential scientific journals—including Nature—and operates platforms such as SpringerLink and Nature Portfolio. The company advances open science, research integrity, and inclusion by supporting authors, institutions, and governments through data-driven publishing tools, educational resources, and outreach programmes like the India Research Tour and Her Research, Our Future.
What is Her Research, Our Future? → An initiative launched by Springer Nature to promote gender equity in research and publishing by increasing women’s participation, visibility, and leadership in science and academia. It supports mentoring networks, workshops, and data-driven action plans to address barriers faced by women researchers, ensuring that diverse voices shape future scholarship and policy.
What is Open Access (OA)? → A publishing model that makes academic research freely available to all, removing paywalls and enabling global knowledge sharing—key to transparency and equitable dissemination of science.
What is One Nation, One Subscription (ONOS)? → An upcoming policy framework of the Government of India that seeks to provide nationwide access to academic journals and research databases through a single subscription, reducing institutional inequalities in access to knowledge.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders:
How can India institutionalise the principles of open science and research integrity to strengthen public trust, gender equity, and innovation within its national research framework?
Follow the full news here: https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2175310