Centre for Research is functioning from the inception of Anna University on 4th September 1978, offering research programmes in different branches of Engineering, Technology, Architecture and Planning, Science & Humanities and Management Sciences leading to award of Ph.D. degree. Faculty members are actively pursuing interdisciplinary and socially relevant research in thrust areas with state–of–the–art equipments in addition to teaching, consultancy and extension activities.
This Centre is offering admission to Ph.D. programme twice a year. Around 13,000 research scholars are pursuing Ph.D. programme. Foreign scholars are admitted through ICCR and QIP scholars have been admitted through AICTE. In order to further enhance the research activities in Anna University and to become a global competitor in research, meritorious and talented youth with PG degree are attracted by “Anna Centenary Research Corpus” supporting 50 research fellowships every year with a stipend of Rs.16,000/- per month and a contingent grant of Rs.25,000/- per year to each scholar for a maximum period of 3 years.
The Centre is looking after the recognition of Departments of various affiliated Engineering Colleges and Industrial Units/R&D centres to do research with this University. It is also providing a platform for the faculty members to interact with other experts in their area of specialization within India and abroad which provide an opportunity for others to understand the research quality of this University and also pave way for scientific collaboration. Around 5000 teaching staffs/experts are recognized as supervisors by the Centre for guiding research scholars.
The informations needed by the scholars/supervisors are posted in the website and periodically updated. Centre is focusing fully on e-Governance such as Online submission of application for Ph.D. programme, Online fees collection for the research scholars, Online submission of soft copy of Synopsis and Thesis to speed up the processing. The status of Ph.D. synopsis and thesis submitted by the research scholars can be accessed online from Anna University website. For quick processing of claim bills of the scholars NEFT transfer is adopted and foreign remuneration are settled through SWIFT transfer. The entire gamut of activities of the Centre such as online functionalities, office administration, etc. including the website management have been conceived, designed and developed by in-house team. Evidence of success can be witnessed from drastic reduction in the duration between submission of thesis and award of degree from 8 months to 3 months on an average and increase in number of scholars receiving Ph.D. Degree.
The number of Ph.D. awardees of Anna University from the inception (1978-2018) is 9234 and in the convocation held in 2018 alone is 1304.