A dispute has emerged between Nepal’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) over plans to amend the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) Act, 1991 and radically restructure the country’s premier scientific institution.

The proposed reform plan has already triggered a complaint at the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).

Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation Mahabir Pun has described the 33-year-old institution as one weighed down by an oversized bureaucracy and political interference, arguing that it requires fundamental reform. Scientists and officials at NAST, however, say the ministry is attempting to undermine the academy’s autonomy under the guise of restructuring.

Pun has openly acknowledged that he has intervened in the institution’s affairs.

“Intervention has become necessary,” Pun said. “The institution was left unchecked for too long. Political interference and appointments based on power-sharing have weakened it. It can now only be reformed through intervention.”

He said he was dissatisfied with NAST’s current state and wanted to free it from political influence.

According to Pun, of NAST’s annual budget of Rs450 million, Rs270 million, or around 75 percent, is spent on staff salaries and administrative expenses.

He argued that the academy has focused more on academic activities than innovation. With its governing board dominated by academics rather than innovators, innovation has been neglected while the institution has become heavily overstaffed, Pun has said.

“We are going to reverse this model,” Pun said. “We will increase the number of researchers and reduce administrative staff.”

Pun also argued that the institution’s legal framework is outdated.

“Fifty years ago, there was no information technology, and there were nowhere near as many universities as there are today,” he said. “The NAST Act was enforced in 1991. It no longer reflects present-day realities, and I want to introduce major reforms.”

Under the current structure, Nepal’s prime minister serves as NAST’s chancellor while the science and technology minister is vice-chancellor. Pun plans to abolish that arrangement.

The Ministry of Science has already forwarded proposed amendments to the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology Act, 1991, to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.

Pun believes the current governance model has encouraged political patronage.

“We will remove the position of chancellor and appoint a director instead,” he said. “The institution should be led by experts. Those who have occupied positions for years will be given a respectful farewell, and we will bring in energetic young professionals.”

Scientists and officials at NAST, however, view the ministry’s approach with growing concern.

NAST spokesperson Ram Chandra Paudel said restructuring is necessary, but argued that the ministry has chosen the wrong path.

“When Minister Pun first took office, we ourselves requested that he restructure NAST,” Paudel said. “But the way the ministry is now pursuing in the name of restructuring has left us deeply concerned.”

He objected in particular to proposals that would allow the ministry itself to oversee scientific research.

“The ministry says it will carry out research. Scientific research simply cannot function within a bureaucratic system,” he said. “Once files begin circulating among government officials, research slows to a standstill.”

Calls to reform NAST are not new.

Dhan Bahadur Karki, an academic at the academy, recalled that seminars and consultations on institutional reform had already been organised during the tenure of former vice-chancellor Dr Dilip Subba.

“NAST should be expanded to all seven provinces,” he said. “We should focus not only on advanced technologies. We must also prioritise our own religion, culture and traditional local technologies, and use them to strengthen self-reliance.”

Another NAST scientist, who requested anonymity, said employees had received neither formal consultation nor official communication regarding the restructuring plans.

Instead, he said, discussions were taking place publicly while the institution’s future was being decided without involving those working inside it.

According to the scientist, the recently introduced Business Allocation Rules, 2026, assign research responsibilities directly to the ministry, weakening autonomous institutions such as NAST.

“At a time when universities and other research institutions have struggled to deliver, the government should be giving NAST greater authority,” the scientist said. “Instead, it is trying to place research under bureaucratic control.”

Paudel said the ministry has been consulting outside experts while failing to coordinate with the institution itself or address internal problems faced by its staff.

He added that NAST is currently operating with both the vice-chancellor and secretary positions vacant, leaving much of its routine work virtually paralysed.

“The restructuring we want is one that removes unnecessary administrative dominance and gives scientists full authority over research,” he said.

Paudel also disagreed with Pun’s proposal to remove the prime minister as chancellor.

“We want the prime minister to continue serving as our chancellor because scientists seek not only government funding but also recognition and encouragement,” he said. “Support from the prime minister carries greater weight.”

Pun, however, remains determined to remove the prime minister from the role.

Ministry spokesperson Monika Jha said people with vested interests had filed the CIAA complaint because the ministry was attempting to introduce greater transparency in NAST’s restructuring process and in the selection of award recipients.

The complaint, registered earlier this week, accuses the ministry of interfering with NAST’s autonomy and launching a negative campaign against the academy.

It also alleges that the ministry is using transparency reforms in grants and awards as a pretext to seize control of NAST’s governing law and autonomous status.

Pun rejected those allegations.

“Autonomy applies to how an institution carries out its work,” he said. “Once an organisation receives public funding, it cannot simply do whatever it wants.”

“Either it should generate its own budget, or if it relies on taxpayers’ money, it must remain accountable,” he said. “The practice of hiring unnecessary staff, paying salaries without assigning work and ignoring the ministry under political protection will come to an end.”

NAST employees argue that the ministry has chosen to move ahead independently rather than coordinating with the academy at a time when its leadership positions remain vacant.

“This institution was originally established to free scientific work from bureaucratic interference and allow complete autonomy in research,” Paudel said.

“After democracy was restored, however, political interference steadily increased. Leadership positions increasingly went to politically connected individuals rather than scientific experts.”

He said this had gradually created an oversized administrative structure in which bureaucrats wielded greater influence than scientists themselves, making the institution less attractive to young researchers.

According to Paudel, NAST can become effective only if appointments to academic positions are based solely on scientific and academic merit rather than political power-sharing.

He also said the academy urgently needs a vice-chancellor with a strong academic profile and a clear understanding of contemporary scientific challenges, noting that key leadership positions have remained vacant for an extended period.

Paudel argued that the current recruitment process is too cumbersome to attract highly qualified researchers with doctoral and postdoctoral experience. He called for a separate and simplified system for recruiting scientists.

He also rejected suggestions that innovation activities should be shifted outside NAST, saying the academy is fully capable of carrying them out.

NAST officials said the academy has already established innovation centres in all seven provinces, making it unnecessary for the ministry to create parallel institutions.

Pun dismissed those centres as largely symbolic.

“They are little more than rented rooms with one or two people distributing budgets,” he said.

He said the ministry would instead establish dedicated innovation hubs open to the public, as well as innovation laboratories within universities, to support students and strengthen Nepal’s innovation ecosystem.