Friends of RIBB

RIBB ENDOWMENT FUND

An Incubator for Growth

Research Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology, RIBB was founded in the year 2011 and has grown to be one of Nepal’s leading non-profit research organizations in the field of biotechnology. RIBB has six different labs under four departments running in conjunction and is pledged to conduct high quality research, maintaining research integrity. Apart from research-based activities, scientific engagement through the “International Conference on Bioscience and Biotechnology (ICBB)” and public engagement through “Engage Nepal with Science (ENwS)” has become an integral part of the Institute. In its institutional journey, RIBB has provided a vast range of research opportunities and facilities and thus has been able to form a consortium of committed, highly trained and competitive 15 young principal investigators, more than 100 undergraduate and graduate researchers, and leaders in today’s interdisciplinary and dynamic research environment.

In these past years, the entirety of its operational cost as well as research cost has always been dependent on the competitive research grants received through international organizations like The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), International Foundation of Science (IFS), Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD), Elsevier Foundation (EF) Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvHF), British Council to name a few. Acknowledging the fact that these research grants should always be the majority of the institutional funds, RIBB has learnt the hard way that they are not always dependable. Occasions like national emergency due to the earthquake immediately followed by the economic blockage in the year 2015 and the global pandemic in 2019 lasting a few years have made the issues of financial dependencies and uncertainties more profound. Now after all these years of learning and growing, RIBB has reached to a point where it requires a permanent revenue stream to financially and logistically support its vast range of research activities.

Creating a “RIBB Endowment Fund” will not only aid the Institute’s operational costs, but also provide an extra push to the areas within the research projects, which are not covered by the finances of the project. The permanent saving of the received amounts of donations and only channelizing the amount received through Interest will give the institute stability. Through the RIBB Endowment Fund, the Institute is looking to solve some of its requisite requirements listed below, which are essential elements for institutional growth:

• For optimum utilization of already available resources: Resource Management (Salary of Lab Manager) and Resource Utilization (Salary of Research Scientist)
• To generate Salaries for PIs and Researchers in the projects where there is no support from the national/international funding agencies.
• To support the Visiting Scientists Program by covering their food & accommodations and most essentially the supplies for workshop/training, in the cases where there is no support from the national/international funding agencies.
• To support Young Graduates from Universities/Research Institutes in Nepal, who come-up with innovative ideas but lack funds for research.
• For the Maintenance and Running costs of the existing laboratory instruments.
• To support Operating Cost like rent, electricity, internet, water & security, during unforeseeable crisis (like catastrophic earthquake and Covid-19)

The endowment funds will be received by the means of donations. A committee within RIBB, the Endowment and Infrastructure Committee (EIC) (HR Policy 3.3) will work in close coordination with the RIBB’s Board of Directors (BoD) in creating specific policies concerning withdrawal as well as usage of the Fund.

For further inquiry, please contact Dr. Devi Basnet ([email protected]) & Prajwal Rajbhandari ([email protected]).