Bids invited for £5M Anglo-Indian research and education initiative

UK and India are inviting bids for the next phase of the UK India Research and Education Initiative (UKIERI), which has been promoting skills development, innovation partnerships and education for the past five years.

This second phase of UKIERI will consists of four strands:

Innovation Partnerships – enhancing the innovation capacity of further and higher education institutions in India;

Skills Development - supporting India with its ambition to train 500 million people by 2022;

Leadership – building leadership capacity in schools, colleges and universities;

Enhancing mobility, through the mutual recognition of learning and achievements.

Companies will also be investing in UKIERI, with the information technology company Tata Consultancy Services for example, agreeing to sponsor 30 fellows, where UK students will have the opportunity to work at Tata in India this summer before coming back to share their experience in UK secondary schools.

UK Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts said in its first five years, UKIERI has created some 500 new partnerships between schools, colleges, universities and research institutions in the two countries. “As of this week we are inviting proposals for collaborations in the areas of building innovation partnerships, skills development and creating a new generation of education professionals.”

To apply for funding, go to www.ukieri.org