UK and India collaborate to innovate

George Bernard Shaw said “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples, each of us has one apple.  But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange ideas, we each have two ideas.” The sharing of ideas is essential for any knowledge economy. India and the UK have a strong track record of collaborating in research and innovation. We share a culture of enquiry and we have enduring human ties – in any field you look at, scientists of Indian origin have made enormous contributions to British science. We have a great research relationship and through our collaborations are helping to answer some of the most pressing questions the world faces.

Last week we celebrated the ‘Research and Innovation are GREAT’ week in New Delhi, and I was delighted that I could contribute to the various events that made it a success. An enormous amount has been achieved over the last few years. The portfolio of jointly funded collaborative research between UK Research Councils and their Indian counterparts has grown from £1m to £150m in the last five years. This includes 80 UK-India research projects involving more than 90 industry partners across both nations. Examples of participating organisations include British Telecom, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, Infosys, National Grid, Rolls Royce and Tata Group. We’re also increasingly working together on innovation and translating the great research we do into applications.

To demonstrate UK’s world class research, innovation and technological credentials to leading figures within industry in India, the UK Science and Innovation Network (SIN) in India, in partnership with UK Trade and Investment, Technology Strategy Board and Accelerator India organised a UK Innovation is GREAT Showcase in New Delhi on 14th November 2013. The event brought together leading entrepreneurs, innovative UK companies, investors, funders and researchers from the UK all under one roof. The audience for the event was Indian companies who are keen to understand how they can work with the UK to enhance their competitiveness through technology driven partnerships.

The half day event was launched with keynote presentations by Sir Mark Walport, Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK government and Sam Pitroda, Adviser on Innovation to the Indian Prime Minister. Structured around the themes of the UK Innovation Ecosystem and the Innovation opportunities in the UK including clusters, hotspots and most cutting-edge technologies, the event was a successful in providing a fascinating and detailed picture of the UK’s Innovation landscape to the Indian audience. There was also a successful case studies session at the end, where UK SMEs presented their innovation journey. The event was followed by a networking lunch. The feedback from the event was hugely positive.

Designed to enable R&D intensive businesses in India to hear the experiences of the visiting UK delegation and to network with them – the event generated new opportunities for joint collaboration. Overall, the event set out areas where the UK is a global innovation leader in entrepreneurship, creativity, science and technology and also demonstrated the UK’s ability to provide conditions for cross-fertilization of ideas and inter-disciplinary collaboration. Bu the end, many delegates requested to be introduced to relevant UK companies for technology partnering. Our team, along with UKTI, is now following up with the leads generated from the event. And people who found partners to work with will be able to apply for money to carry out a joint R&D project in the new call launched this week!

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Photos from the event.