Coming to a city near you…

Following the success of the 2011 campaign, the European Union to India and its member states are running another series of information seminars in India from 10-28 September.

These seminars will be held in 31 Indian cities and aim to raise awareness among Indian research stakeholders about the opportunities for research and innovation cooperation.

From Chandigarh to Thiruvanthapuram, the Science and Innovation India team, along with RCUK India, will be delivering presentations in 13 cities.  Come along to find out about exciting research opportunities, including mobility schemes for Indian students and researchers, and partner search tools.  Indian participants in cooperation programmes with Europe will be there to share their experiences and lessons learnt.

In addition to the presentations there are also five thematic sessions that will focus on biotechnology, industrial research, sustainable transport, ICT and health.

The final event is in New Delhi on 28 September where the Head of Indian Department of Science & Technology, Head of the EU Delegation, Ambassadors of EU Member States, members of the S&IN India and RCUK India teams will participate. The events will be held in 36 cities over a course of  3 weeks; please see the timetable to find out when and where the seminars are being held.  More than 3000 researchers, students and industry representatives attended the events in 2011 and we are expecting to see about double that number this year.  To book your place at one of these seminars or for more information please visit the event website.  We hope to see you there!

Continuing on a European theme, The European Union has recently announced the biggest ever set of calls for proposals of research under its Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). This worldwide call for proposals, totalling €8.1 billion (INR 56,700 crores), will aim to tackle issues such as human health, protecting the environment and finding new solutions to growing challenges linked to urbanisation and managing waste. Special attention will be given to small and medium-sized enterprises with funding of about €1.2 billion to develop new products or further innovate on their offering. All these calls for proposals are open to organisations and businesses in all EU Member States and key partner countries such as India.