Techno Forum Research Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that has been working since 2011 with the higher education system in India.
The Foundation began by implementing various programmes to improve educational quality across the country. By 2015 however, it became clear that working on a “project” mode was inadequate and it takes continuous effort over many decades for any deep-rooted change to happen. This can only be achieved by establishing “institutions” which are embedded in the local context and can collaborate with local government structures. Thus the idea of setting up District Institutes in field locations came into being.
The Foundation has also set up Center of Excellence (COEs) in partnership with various International & InterGovernmental organizations to develop and foster Research and Development. The learnings from the seven years of working on the ground were consolidated to form the organizing principles of the current entity. The most important implication of the learnings from this phase was that the work of the Foundation had to be organized into institutions since institutions are permanent in nature.