University of California System and Indian Scientific Organizations Ink Landmark Agreement on Global Research

Indo-US S&T Forum and Amrita University to coordinate Indian Side

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In a landmark research agreement with international dimensions, India’s premier science and technology organizations, including the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC), TIFAC, and Indo-US S&T Forum, and Amrita University, IIT Kanpur, Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research, and SETS, are together signing a 5-year agreement with the ten campus University of California System to carry out ground-breaking research in globally challenging and impactful areas. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by DST Secretary Professor V.S. Ramamurthy and DBT Secretary Dr. M.K. Bhan with the 8-member University of California delegation, in the presence of Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister of Science and Technology and Ocean Development, at New Delhi.

This Initiative takes the collaboration between the University of California System, with its ten campuses and four Institutes for Science and Innovation (including CITRIS), and leading Indian scientific organizations and universities, to a far deeper level in areas of science, technology, research and education. It will dramatically strengthen joint research and educational collaborations, and will build on the recent US-India collaborations in engineering education, expanding the focus to a wide range of disciplines aimed at providing solutions to common pressing challenges that will yield long-term benefits to the competitiveness and security of India and the US.

Areas of collaboration include, biomedical and digital healthcare technologies, drug design and delivery systems, study of emerging infectious diseases, wireless and mobile communication, intelligent transportation systems, telematics, information technology and cybersecurity, technologies for disaster warning, mitigation, and management, nanobiosciences, nanomedicine, and nanotechnology, energy, including a focus on solar energy and bio-fuels, agricultural biotechnologies and food security, biodiversity, with an emphasis on marine systems, water quality and quantity, global warming and climate change studies.

For the purpose of effective implementation of this Memorandum, a binational Joint Steering Committee (JSC) is being established. The Joint Steering Committee will have responsibility for the management of this collaboration under the directions of the Secretaries of the Departments of Science and Technology and Biotechnology of the Government of India, the President of the University of California, with the Indo-US S&T Forum serving as the secretariat and Mata Amritanandamayi Math’s Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (Amrita University) serving as the convener.

With a desire to provide a fertile ground and support for a successful blooming of this landmark UC-India Initiative, both UC and Indian Scientific Organizations intend to provide adequate support. Funding limits have been set at $10 Million on the US side, and Rs. 50 Crores on the Indian side, for each of next five years.