Bangalore-Cambridge Innovation Network Launched

In a week when the UK was confirmed as having four universities in the top six in the world, we had a high-powered delegation from the University of Cambridge (ranking top in the UK) in town, led by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz.

The main event on 13th September was Science, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, an event with around 400 participants, to launch the Bangalore-Cambridge Innovation network. This included the unveiling the network’s dedicated website, and the generous presentation of 10 Raspberry Pis to students from IIIT-B. The latter came about because of the impressive work the students have already done with the first Raspberry Pi they were given when Professor Rajagopalan visited Cambridge as part of our delegation to initiate the Network in April. Their demonstration in the reception area, featured on Rasberry Pi’s own website, attracted a large and very curious crowd!

We started with a plenary session in the J N Tata Auditorium at the Indian Institute for Science (IISc), where Sir Leszek and Professor Balaram, Director of the IISc, set out their views on the potential to link the two cities. Mr Ian Felton, our Deputy High Commissioner, explained what our office does and why the UK sees Bangalore as a key place to be represented (and to my embarrassment asked me to stand and wave to the audience). And we were grateful to have a representative of the Government of Karnataka at the event. Mr. Kanwar Pal, Principle Secretary for Ecology and Environment, spoke warmly about Karnataka’s support for the project.

The highlight of the day was getting the attendees into different working groups to develop actions plans in the areas of Clean Tech, Life Sciences, Frugal Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Corporate Innovation and Intellectual Property. Some exciting ideas came out of this such as an online pinboard to share opportunities between both cities, or producing specialisation maps of the cities for people looking to link up. You will soon be able to see records of the actions agreed by each group on the Bangalore-Cambridge website (so watch this space!).

The next stage is for each of the groups to develop their plans and put them into action. As Sir Leszek said in his closing remarks, he’s expecting progress and it’s up to everyone there to deliver!

The day finished with a reception on Ian’s rooftop for leading corporate figures from Bangalore to meet the Cambridge delegation. The positivity of the day continued and I could feel a genuine enthusiasm on both sides to find opportunities to work together. Unfortunately, the evening was brought to a premature end by a major downpour, but not before much was discussed. There’s not a lot you can do about the weather – something else Bangalore and Cambridge share!

The next day, in a sign of the deepening ties between the two cities, an initiative in chemical biology and molecular therapeutics was announced between the University of Cambridge and the National Centre of Biological Sciences. Funded by India’s Department of Biotechnology, the £11m initiative aims to improve the way in which drugs to combat diseases are developed. I’m sure this won’t be last you hear about Cambridge-Bangalore projects!

A lot of hard work went into making the day a success, and I’m grateful to everyone who contributed – particularly Professors Shailendra Vyakarnam and Parameshwar Iyer for their work masterminding the event.