The Ministry is now bringing out the Guidelines for Support to Research in mining & mineral sector to provide renewed scientific impetus to address the emerging mining challenges, broaden the participation of stakeholders, introduce the concept of cost-sharing and make the research in Mines more productive, with an emphasis on outputs and outcomes. The Guidelines set forth the objectives and thrust areas of research, procedure for invitation and processing of research proposals for funding support, norms for funding, conditions of support and participation of public and private sectors in mutually agreed bilateral, multilateral, cross-sectoral and inter-institutional projects. Special attention has been given to, dissemination of research findings and scaling up of the leads, which are generated through research projects and are of societal relevance.