Research Councils UK opens office in India

Research Councils UK (RCUK) has opened a new office in New Delhi, India, to promote research collaboration between the two countries. It will work with Indian funding bodies to share strategies, increase dialogue on funding priorities and pursue and promote collaborative research opportunities, leading to high impact research partnerships.

The Research Councils have been working to encourage collaboration with India for a number of years and have already supported projects including a collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, developing new ways of using biomass by growing multi-purpose crops, which can be used for food, soap and pesticides, before the residues are burnt for energy; a joint initiative in partnership with the India Department of Science and Technology (DST), investing GBP 8million into Science Bridges, a scheme to draw in industry partners the Anglo/Indian research projects and a partnership between the DST and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council working on next generation communications networks.

Next year, GBP5million of funding will be committed for new research on energy, to be undertaken with Indian partners and focusing on priority areas such as solar energy.

John Beddington, UK Chief Scientific Advisor, said the opening of the office in India demonstrates the UK recognises the value of global collaboration in tackling future challenges. “Working with partners in emerging economies is vital to bring about the best possible research outcomes. In this time of economic gloom and doom, it is important that we keep sight of the big picture and work together with global partners to achieve solutions.”

The director of the office Alicia Greated, said, “As India's research reputation and capacity continues to grow, we feel it is vital to embed valuable relationships between the UK and India to ensure future success.”

The strategic goal of the RCUK Office is to make it easier for the UK and India to develop high quality, high impact research partnerships by focusing on the following:

1. Influence: To develop positive, sustainable and influential relationships with key stakeholders;
2. Excellence: To support high quality research collaborations between India and the UK;
3. Impact: To build the profile of the RCUK office to influence policy and deliver valuable, high impact outputs;

These three priorities will underpin five aims of RCUK’s International Strategy which are:

1. Encourage collaboration between UK researchers and the best researchers from around the world;
2. Promote the movement of researchers to and from the UK;
3. Give UK researchers access to data facilities and resources;
4. Influence the international research agenda;
5. Promote the UK as a world centre for research and innovation.