ambedkar university delhi aud has set up a new research centre on campus aaditi isaac reports to give a formal and sustainable shape to the idea of a fielddiscipline called development practice ambedkar university delhi aud has now set up a centre for development practice cdp in the university this centre will emerge as a research documentation capacity building and reflection site for the developmental sector scholars and agents engaged with issues like rural livelihood education governance and health cdp is also expected to serve as a nucleus to further auds engagement with social development says anup dhar associate professor school of human studies ambedkar university delhi the need for setting up cdp also emerges out of the realisations emanating from learnings in the oneyear long engagement through the mphil programme in development practice the need is to bridge the inherited divide between theory and practice natural and social science selfperspective and groupperspective individual research and collaborative research this is also a movement towards repositioning of the social sciences as also humanities in terms of its direct conversation with society and not just market it is also a movement towards problem solving modes of research and knowledge production that is tuned to the needs of contemporary society cdp will thus contribute to revisiting the received inherited idea of the university itself he says