Bureaucratic red tape, restricted funding, and costly tools usually conspire to make scientific analysis within the Global South an uphill process. Yet researchers proceed to search out inventive methods to maintain going.
At a plenary lecture throughout the Student Conference on Conservation Science in Bengaluru in September, Sammy Wambua, a conservation genomics scientist from Pwani University in Kenya, outlined how scientists in resource-constrained settings improvise and collaborate round bureaucratic and different hurdles.
The assembly, hosted by the Indian Institute of Science, introduced collectively early-career scientists from India and another nations. In his discuss, ‘Navigating Conservation Genomics in East Africa: A Personal Journey, Practical Lessons, and a Vision for Equitable Science’, Dr. Wambua sketched out the obstacles that researchers in Kenya face and supplied classes that may resonate in India, the place younger scientists cope with comparable challenges.
A sort of ‘jugaad’
Among different factors, he stated that probably the most daunting limitations aren’t scientific however bureaucratic. Multiple overlapping insurance policies, opaque approval processes, and inhibitory oral directives usually depart researchers stranded and their experiments usually at dead-ends.
“When you run into hindrances with anything bureaucratic and try to get an explanation, you don’t get a satisfactory one,” he stated. “It tells you immediately that the bureaucrats are not guided by anything that is written.”
The Indian expertise echoes this. Wildlife biologists usually wait months for permits to enter protected areas, with no updates from the forest division. Conservationist Tarsh Thekaekara, who attended Dr. Wambua’s lecture, recalled how one in every of his permits to work with elephants was delayed for eight months till he sat within the forest division workplace for 4 days. Such experiences are a part of what he known as ‘jugaad’ — the quintessentially Indian behavior of growing fast fixes to navigate inefficiencies.
Even when legal guidelines formally enable exceptions, resembling shopping for sure enzymes from a single supply as a result of just one provider exists, oral directives can override them. In India, procurement guidelines usually impose inflexible ‘lowest price’ norms even for extremely particular reagents, rendering it tough for labs to acquire area of interest supplies. Earlier this 12 months, in reality, the Union Ministry of Finance eased a few of these constraints by elevating the direct buy restrict from ₹1 lakh to ₹2 lakh and permitting vice-chancellors to approve tenders of as much as ₹200 crore.
Ideally, Dr. Wambua stated, authorities workplaces ought to perform like service counters that talk utility standing clearly and proactively. Researchers in each Kenya and India as a substitute face lengthy silences till they make time and comply with up.
Collaborations as bridges
He additionally argued that collaboration may present one other manner round such hurdles. For instance, worldwide tasks sometimes require memoranda of understanding (MoUs) which can be authorized by the respective governments — however which frequently languish in ministries for years. Instead, he stated, he and his colleagues use provisional ‘Frameworks of Collaboration’ that enable them to start work whereas formal MoUs are nonetheless being processed.
“We apply for the MoUs to be approved, and in the meantime we can get started,” he stated, emphasising that the method is authorized and pragmatic.
Funding shortfalls are the opposite main impediment. Dr. Wambua described how his college students’ purposes for postgraduate scholarships had been repeatedly rejected. But partnerships with conservation organisations typically yielded each science and help. He recalled proposing coral genotyping tasks with the situation that the finances be raised to cowl college students’ charges and stipends, in impact linking constructing capability to analysis outcomes.
In India as nicely, many funding delays have threatened the sustenance of each college students and analysis tasks. Reports from Centrally funded universities have admitted arrears in disbursing fellowships. Typically, the Ministry approves students’ claims however forces them to attend for months to obtain their stipends, pushing them to tackle educating work and typically even private loans.
Collaborative preparations resembling agreements between Indian and overseas labs (e.g. to separate analysis work) are sometimes the one technique to bridge the hole ultimately.
Dr. Wambua additionally highlighted how quickly evolving know-how makes costly investments extra dangerous. For occasion, shopping for a DNA sequencing machine may cost tens of lakhs of rupees — just for the mannequin to grow to be out of date inside months. Instead, he stated, scientists can ship samples overseas at minimal price to be processed utilizing state-of-the-art amenities.
“It helps to have friends in labs in different countries,” he stated.
“We cannot stop working because there is no money. If you have a PhD, the least you can do is think.”
‘Find ways to work together’
A row of DNA sequencing machines. According to accounts from researchers in government-funded establishments, Indian public universities usually face protracted procurement cycles, typically exceeding six months.
| Photo Credit:
Steve Jurvetson (CC BY)
According to accounts from researchers in government-funded establishments, Indian public universities usually face protracted procurement cycles, typically exceeding six months. Delayed supply and/or non-compatibility points additional erode worth and, inside that timeframe, the DNA sequencer might have been rendered pointless or irrelevant.
Underlying Dr. Wambua’s overarching message was a name for extra South-South collaborations. Countries in Africa and Asia face comparable constraints and stand to realize by pooling sources and aligning analysis priorities relatively than labouring alone, usually to ineffectual ends.
“We should be more intentional in seeing our strengths and finding ways to work together,” he stated, urging scientists to reimagine collaboration past the normal North-South mannequin.
One explicit indicator of that is India’s file of publications within the agricultural sciences. One recent analysis by Central University of Tamil Nadu and Banaras Hindu University researchers underscored how a lot worldwide collaboration shapes visibility. In 2014-2023, scientists had been discovered to have coauthored virtually 2,100 papers with establishments within the US, eliciting greater than 33,000 citations. Ultimately, the evaluation confirmed, collaborations with extra establishments had been additionally extra impactful.
For younger researchers in India listening in Bengaluru, the parallels would have been unmistakable. Bureaucratic delays, outdated procurement guidelines, and power underfunding are all hallmarks of doing science in India. However, Dr. Wambua’s account additionally carried a be aware of optimism and that creativity and solidarity can hold science alive even within the hardest environments.
Rishika Pardikar is a contract setting reporter.
Published – October 07, 2025 05:30 am IST