UK India Science and Innovation relationship soars to new heights!

Within a span of a few weeks UK and India relations in Science and Innovation received a new impetus by a number of high profile visits!

In mid-November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the UK during which he, along with Prime Minister David Cameron announced a number of joint research and innovation initiatives that address directly the Indian government’s flag ship programmes like – Smart Cities and Clean Ganga.

To celebrate UK and India’s historic bond in promoting and jointly pursuing Science and Innovation collaborations, they announced that 2016 would be the UK-India Year of Education, Research and Innovation. They also announced that the UK will be the partner country for the 2016 Technology Summit in New Delhi. This will be held on 24-26 October 2016 in Pragati Maidan, so don’t forget to block your diaries for this mega event that will bring together leaders in research, innovators and entrepreneurs from UK and India to showcase their expertise and products and explore opportunities to broker new partnerships! The exhaustive list of the two PM’s announcements can be seen in the joint statement including the now open third round of UK India R&D industrial R&D call.

The end of November saw Sir Mark Walport, UK Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, in India to co-chaired the bilateral science and innovation policy dialogue with DST Secretary, Prof Ashutosh Sharma during which the leading S&I policy makers of the two countries took stock of the progress made on joint programmes since the last Ministerial Science and Innovation Council in November 2014 and discussed new and emerging areas for future collaborations. Interdisciplinary research and innovation and women in science emerged as the areas the two countries are keen on pursuing jointly.

Shortly after Sir Mark Walport’s visit, the two ministers responsible for UK’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Rt Hon Sajid Javid and Jo Johnson were in India to promote and celebrate UK and India’s joint collaborations in Education, Science, Research and Innovation. During their visit, minister Johnson formally launched UK’s partnership in the 2016 Technology Summit with Minister Harsh Vardhan in New Delhi, to a well packed audience and also announced the extension of UK’s Newton Fund that provides an opportunity for the Newton Bhabha Fund with India to go beyond its original lifetime of five years.

He also visited Bangalore and attended a research and innovation showcase event by Research Councils UK at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) where he announced new joint research programmes under Newton-Bhabha and launched a report, Shaping the Future , which assesses the impact of RCUK-India research and innovation partnerships.

While in Mumbai, the two ministers visited a number of research institutions including the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) to reinforce the message of increasing collaborations between UK and India.

These series of visits within a short span of a month brought to the fore how much the UK and India are investing in building and nurturing joint linkages and partnerships in the areas of science, research and innovation. As 2015 comes to a close on this positive note, we look forward to welcoming the New Year and continuing this upward trajectory of building cooperation between UK and Indian research communities.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year from the Science and Innovation Team in India!