• Ensuring that environment is created / nurtured / maintained so that faculty and scientists at IITB are able to conduct research of the highest caliber.
  The research environment includes laboratories’ civil infrastructure, equipment, support staff -- both technical and administrative -- and research staff .
• Providing support for researchers to liaise with (potential) funding sources so as to be able to finance their research and development activities.
• Spotting and nurturing opportunities for collaboration between researchers (within IITB) and their counterparts in other institutions.
• Ensuring that IITB researchers are positioned to contribute to the state of the art in cutting edge and emerging areas of research in Science and Engineering.
• Identifying and putting in place ways and means by which work done by researchers at IITB can be exploited whenever appropriate and possible – to address problems faced by society and industry. Towards this, licensing, commercialization and agile processes for industry-academia partnerships are a must.
• Providing admin support for conducting research – management of human resources, financial management, procurement.
  

- Report of the Professor R.P.Singh Committee, 1974