Social Science Research Network (SSRN), the US based online portal for research scholars, today entered into a partnership with SRM University with an objective of promoting research programmes among students.

Though the portal, with a subscriber base of more than one lakh research scholars worldwide, already has parterships with Indian business schools such as the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata and the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, this is the first time it is partnering with an Indian University, according to SSRN President Gregory J Gordon.

"SRM (University) and SSRN will work on partnership mode to create a network dedicated (for students) exchanging ideas on research," he said after inaugurating the seminar on "International Conference on Business Research" organised by School of Management of SRM University at Kattankulathur near here.

The portal currently has research papers on accounting economics, financial economics, health economics and political science belonging to various scholars all over the world.

The association with SRM University would help the students in knowledge-sharing by accessing the portal, Gordon said.

"It will also help them do research in areas specific to geographic locations.. For example a student may be in the United States and another student may be sitting here (Chennai), but the research topic may be the same. They can share their knowledge," he said.

Asked why they preferred to partner with SRM University, he said, "the University was very aggressive and were moving ahead (among other universities)."

Gordon said about two dozen Nobel Laureates have submitted a copy of their research programmes on the portal for the benefit of the student community, adding India ranks sixth in the number of submissions made by scholars to the website.

The two-day conference beginning today will involve the exchange of research experiences among the scholars and students. About 101 papers received from Iran, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, New Zealand, United States and India were expected to be presented during the conference.