MoUs inked between Indian, UK institutions

While, the MoU between the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the University of Oxford will focus on affordable healthcare and life science, the agreement between the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) and the University of Exeter, aims at increased collaboration on archaelogical projects.

The agreements were signed in the presence of British Minister for Universities and Science David Willets, who, during his previous visit to Bangalore in November last year, was keen on tying-up with ISRO.

The MoU’s were signed in the backdrop of a workshop held in the City titled, “Pioneering Metallurgy - The origins of Iron and Steel-making in the Southern Indian Sub-continent.”
Briefing mediapersons after the signing of MoUs, Willetts praised Bangalore’s achievements in academic activities and said: “We chose Bangalore as we are confident of seeing good research resulting in products through this relationship.”

Elaborating on the City’s  ability in research and development, Willets spoke about the IISc’s water cycle project and the works going on in NIAS on the history of metallurgy, dating back to ancient India.

He said the new agreements were a part of the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI). As in 2011, UKIERI has joint projects worth 90 million pounds, as opposed to one million pound in 2008.

He announced that a new scholarship scheme has been introduced for Indian students in the name of former president A P J Abdul Kalam. The scheme, launched by the Queen’s University, Belfast, is worth $400,000 in total, and offers scholarships for up to 100 Indian students enrolling for postgraduate engineering, science and technology programmes, in September 2012.

He also announced that an MoU had been signed between the University of Oxford and the IISc. He said that the initiative would bring together the complementary scientific capabilities of the two Universities in Biology and Engineering. Willets’ visit also included a synergy between UK and the Indian bioenergy research, offering opportunities for innovations, using cutting edge technologies in a number of areas.

Only three centres
“Our relationship with India is serious and this is evident in many ways. It is evident from  the fact that we have only three centres abroad, with one of them being located in India,” said Paul Boyle, Chief Executive for the Economic Council.

“The Queen’s University leads in Science and Technology and we come from a very strong engineering and science base. We would like to offer scholarships in these regions,” said Kevin Mulhern from Queen’s University.