DELPHI TECHNIQUE FOR LOCALITY-SPECIFIC S-AND-T PLANNING

Research involves looking into future and addressing a future need. Wi thout formal mechanisms this can be quite hazy. Since commencing resea rch on a particular area means commitment of resources; project initia tion is important in the context of constraints. This initiation proce ss can be meaningful and worthwhile only if proper methods are adopted for formally generating potentially useful ideas of relevance to the locality-specific features of the research institute after considering its expertise profile and potential research needs. Research manageme nt and particularly S&T planning is confronted with the problem of sys tematic idea generation and project initiation. The prevalent literatu re deals mostly with the subsequent stages of project evaluation, sele ction and execution. There is a lot of interest growing in planning fo r generic technologies. In this paper a formal technique like Delphi i s used to identify areas of current focus and future potential in the area of food science and technology in a manner as to be of potential interest to the laboratory in question, keeping in mind its overall ch arter, expertise profile and area relevance.