The university was invited to join ministers on the visit in what has been a series of events strengthening relations with partners and industry in India.
King’s accompanied Minister for Universities and Science Joe Johnson MP on a visit to partners in Bangalore where they toured the Indian Institute of Science and met with other academics from leading institutions such as Reva University, St Joseph's College and Christ University.
King’s also announced a new summer school in collaboration with Unilever during a week of key talks on the role of UK business and academia in India.
King’s has partnered with the Unilever R&D Centre in Bangalore to offer a summer programme in Diet and Health which will take place in June 2016. This summer school will be led by Dr Richard Siow, Senior Lecturer in Cardiovascular Physiology in the King’s British Heart Foundation Centre for Research Excellence together with Unilever experts.
Unique programme
The unique programme will bring together expertise from one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies and an institution at the forefront in life science education and biomedical research. Dr Siow has an established collaborative research programme with Unilever teams in Bangalore and UK.
The partnership builds on courses in health already established by King’s and partners in Bangalore and Mumbai.
Chairing a panel at the BRICS & Emerging Economies Universities Summit 2015 in Delhi in the same week on the role of international collaborations in promoting global excellence, Vice Principal (International) Dr Joanna Newman said it was vital that UK research universities move with the times.
‘Research universities need to attract a diverse range of faculty and students to help tackle global challenges,’ she said. ‘They need require multi-disciplinary, interdependent structures; and must develop a wide range of successful international collaborations.’
'Massive global change'
‘Higher education is undergoing massive global change and research universities must move with the times. King’s is no exception and through King’s international Strategy, we want to embrace the opportunities.’
‘They must also build up a diverse range of industrial and institutional partners – in the public, private and third sector - both to support the commercialisation of research, attract diverse sources of funding and offer students opportunities to become globally-employable citizens.’
The Unilever partnership builds on similar courses in health already established by King’s and partners in Bangalore and Mumbai this year including a summer school at the St John’s Research Institute in Bangalore and a Fundamentals in Oncology course, in partnership with the Tata Memorial Cancer Centre (TMCC).
King’s also has a number of partnership initiatives (neurology and molecular biophysics) with the National Centre for Biological Science, Bangalore.
Receive the Funding Newswire each Tuesday, our Policy Bulletin each Thursday, and news about bridging Europe’s east-west innovation gap twice a month in The Widening. 
A unique international forum for public research organisations and companies to connect their external engagement with strategic interests around their R&D system.
