India-EU steering committee adopts long-term perspective
India has proposed Implementation Arrangement (IA) for co-funding future joint projects under India-EU Science, Technology, and Innovation Cooperation to streamline the process of collaboration, the Ministry of Science & Technology said on 22 Feb 2021.
The IA is to address certain issues on project evaluation, selection, funding, monitoring, and also IPR sharing, data sharing, materials, equipment transfer mechanism and so on.
Forty-two collaborative projects amounting to a total of EUR ~157 million funding (EUR 113 from H2020 & EUR 44 from Government of India) have been funded during 2014-2020, the Ministry said, announcing the IA proposal at the 13 India-EU joint steering committee on science and technology.
The majority of these collaborations took place in the form of flagship calls on water, a new generation influenza vaccine, and smart grids cooperation. The mobility of researchers from both sides was significantly increased over the years, and cooperation among scientists and research organisations from India and Europe strengthened.
Elaborating, the Ministry said the steering committee has agreed to develop and adopt a long-term strategic perspective for collaboration in research and innovation at the meeting hosted by the European Commission recently.
The two sides appreciated the achievements under India–EU science, technology innovation cooperation and decided to create an action-oriented agenda which can be implemented within the agreed timeline at the meeting co-chaired by Director-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission (EC), Jean-Eric Paquet, on the EU side and India’s Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) Professor Ashutosh Sharma.
Taking into account the Joint Statement and the ‘EU-India Strategic Partnership: A Roadmap to 2025’, adopted at the EU-India July Summit, both sides have shown keen interest for possible cooperation on ICT, in particular, cyber-physical-systems (ICPS), including artificial intelligence and robotics, circular economy and resource efficiency (waste-to-energy; plastics; etc.), electric mobility and sustainable agri-food processing and so on.
The important role of Mission Innovation to concentrate efforts on research and innovation to accelerate the clean energy transition, necessary for a carbon-neutral planet, was underlined, cooperation on health beyond Covid-19 pandemic areas through global fora was also reinforced. Both sides also underlined the cooperation on polar sciences and discussed future cooperation under Horizon Europe at the virtual meeting.
The two sides reiterated their commitment to human capital development, including researchers’ training and mobility, based on mutual interests and reciprocal promotion of each other’s equivalent programmes, aiming at a more balanced flow of researchers between Europe and India.
Indian side presented the key elements of new Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP 2020), which aim to create a fit for purpose, accountable research ecosystem promoting translational as well as foundational research; indigenous development of technology, technology indigenization; facilitating open Science; equity and inclusion. #banking #funding #technology #science #projects /fiinews.com
