S&T Organizations Sign MoU with California University

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, Indo-US S&T Forum, Amrita University, IIT Kanpur, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, and SETS, have signed 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 Prof. V.S. Ramamurthy with the 8-member University of California delegation, in the presence of Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister for Science & 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 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 bi-national Joint Steering Committee (JSC) is being established.

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 matching funds from Indian side, depending upon the requirements of the subject approved for each of next five years.

The University of California (UC), with its ten campuses, five academic medical centers, an annual budget of $19 billion, 200,000 students, and 155,000 faculty and staff, has grown to become one of the world’s leading centers of research and education.

Source : Press Information Bureau
Date : March 16, 2006