Newton Bhabha Innovation Workshop: Industry Academia Engagement

On 12-13 May 2015, the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng), in partnership with the Science and Innovation Network (SIN) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) organised a workshop in New Delhi on ‘industry academia engagement’. The aim of the workshop was to discuss the current challenges of technological development in India, share the UK experience and help inform this programme’s design and implementation.

The SIN team in India is working with the RAEng, who are the UK’s national academy for engineering, as a delivery partner for the Higher Education Partnership (HEP) programme under Newton Bhabha. We partnered with FICCI because of their track record in the field of higher education including introducing the National Knowledge Functional Hub model. This model is similar to the HEP programme that is proposed to be implemented in India.

The objective of HEP is to enhance the quality of engineering graduates and create institutional research and teaching partnerships. Focussed around bilateral academic and industry exchange placements, these partnerships will help in catalysing technology transfer between industry and academia in India and also the UK. HEP will work on a ‘hub and spoke’ model, with ‘hub’ universities being funded to carry out exchanges with industry and disseminating their experiences and best practice through workshops with ‘spoke’ universities, with the objectives to share international knowledge and best practice, enhance the teaching curricula, and inculcate technology entrepreneurship and innovation capacity among engineering students. The HEP model is based on similar successful programmes run by the academy in Africa and UK.

The workshop involved participation from key stakeholders from across government, academia and industry. The Secretary of the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD), and Joint Secretaries of the University Grants Commission and the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship all attended and spoke on the importance of the link between universities and industry stating that HEP can support the Government of India’s ongoing efforts to enhance and upgrade the level of engineering institutions.

There was widespread participation from several engineering universities and institutions across Western and Northern India and major industry players like Rolls Royce, Larsen and Toubro, Thermax India and Chemtrols. A seven member delegation from UK, led by the Vice President of Royal Academy of Engineering and representatives from the University of Cambridge, University of Surrey, University of Leeds, Cranfield University and ATS Consultants were part of the workshop.

With such a range of stakeholders, this event enhanced our understanding of higher education in India, the mandate of the Indian government and policy makers in influencing change and highlighted the important role the UK can play to build and establish partnerships with industry. The brainstorming discussions also helped frame the call for proposals, which will be announced later this year.

The workshop also included the India release of Confederation of Business Industry’s (CBI) report ‘Best of Both Worlds: Guide to Business University Collaboration’. The report is a comprehensive study of the benefits of partnerships between businesses and universities for research, innovation, skills and professional development and includes a number of case studies to inspire new partnerships. The detailed report can be viewed here.

So, for now the follow up action is to distil the discussions in the form of a report and apply these to design and deliver a successful HEP programme. So, look out for further news on the launch of the Newton Bhabha ‘Higher Education Partnerships’ programme soon! Please contact me for any further details!