Forward look for 2013

You had the SINners best bits of 2012 and so we thought at the start of this new year it would be a good time to have a look at what the SIN India team are getting excited about in 2013. Events and projects ranging from environmental issues to bioenergy to creative economy are going to be keeping us all very busy; here is a quick snapshot of some of the highlights planned so far.

On 11 January SIN India are supporting an event organised by Imperial College, London, on Understanding Climate Change, which is being held at IISc Bangalore. It is aimed at working together to meet the challenges we face from climate and global environment change, and will focus on the potential of world leading research to help inform decision making around climate change.

Following on with the environmental theme but this time back in the UK there will be the Wilton Park conference on Natural Disasters from 28-30 January. We have managed to secure high level attendance from both the Indian Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and National Disaster Management Authority to share the Indian experience. Joining hands with SIN US, SIN China, UKCDS, Met Office and Wilton Park to organise this event , we are all really interested to hear about the outcomes.

SIN India is also working with RCUK to facilitate an MoU between the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and MoES to enable collaborations to be taken forward in the areas of interest for both. Additionally we are involved in the organisation of a workshop on Monsoons and another one on funded projects under Changing Water Cycles programme during the week of 4 February in Delhi.

February also sees the return of the Unbox festival. SIN India are supporting an innovative cross-arts programme linked to the festival; the Unbox fellowships. We are looking forward to seeing the results from the intriguingly named categories such as unTILL, unVEIL and unMAP.

We will also be interested to hear the results from two big research collaboration calls that were announced in 2012 by the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Councils (BBSRC) and India’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT). The finalists in both the Sustainable bioenergy and biofuels call and the Farmed animal disease and health research call will be announced in 2013.

The early part of the year sees a whole host of people coming to India. RiffStream is back with two events but this time in Delhi (RiffStream#Delhi) for the Creating Smart Power Solutions event on 31 January and in Bangalore (RiffStream#Bangalore) for a MedTech and Medical Devices on 5 February. Both are set to be interesting events and aim to inspire deliver innovative solutions to energy and healthcare challenges. There will also be a variety of health related visitors coming to Bangalore in mid-January; watch this space for more details.

The Web Mission 2013, an entrepreneur-led mission, is helping to bring 20 of the UK’s best early stage digital, wireless and mobile software technology companies to India. UKTI, who are supporting Web Mission 2013 along with others, are also helping to bring businesses out to India as part of their UK Trade & Investment East of England trade missions.

And if that’s not enough the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), another supporter of Web Mission 2013, are involved in a number of activities stepping up our innovation collaboration with India in 2013. Again watch this space for more details!

It’s going to be busy! And that is just a taste of the year ahead, there are plenty more events, visits and conferences planned. To help you keep up to date make sure you sign up to our newsletter, keep an eye on our What’s on pages or read our blog.