New Delhi, Nov 13 (KNN)  India and the United Kingdom have agreed to scale up their bilateral research and innovation relationship to a greater level.  The two countries have also announced a new initiative called the Newton-Bhabha Fund which will further help the relations.

This was decided during a meeting between Minister for Science and Technology, Dr Harsh Vardhan and the UK Minister for Universities, Science and Cities, Greg Clark here yesterday, according to an official release.

“The Newton-Bhabha Fund (UK pounds 50 million over 5 years from the UK and matched efforts from India) is an important programme, with a strong interdisciplinary dimension that will further strategise the science, research and innovation cooperation between the UK and India,” it said.

The series of new Newton-Bhabha programmes would include: British Council India and the Department of Science and Technology, India joint PhD student mobility programme.  This will sponsor UK and Indian PhD students to spend a period of their study (3 to 6 months) in premier Indian and UK higher education institutions starting from March 2015.

The aim of the programme is to pave the way for the next generation of researchers in the UK and India to interact with each other and build long-term R&D linkages and collaborations.

In addition, the UK’s Medical Research Council (MRC) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will have a joint initiative for new research projects in Mental Health and Substance Abuse. Up to UK pounds 2 million is available from the UK and ICMR will fund the Indian component.

Further, the fund would provide for UK pounds 10 million for joint Global Research Programme in Women’s and Children’s Health funded by the UK’s Medical Research Council (MRC), Department of International Development (DFID) and India’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT).

The Newton-Bhabha Fund would also support up to UK pounds 7 million for Joint Centre Partnerships in Cancer Biology, Translational Regenerative Medicines in Neuroscience and Antimicrobial Resistance, funded by UK’s Medical Research Council (MRC) and India’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT).

Other programmes of the Fund are - Joint UK-India centre(s) for research in Renewable Energy co-funded by RCUK Energy programme and India’s Department of Science and Technology (DST); and Innovate UK and the Department of Science and Technology, India joint programme to support business-led research and development aimed at tackling grand societal challenges.

Both the science ministers had also co-chaired the 4th UK-India Science and Innovation Council (SIC) meeting held here.

During the event, they applauded the significant role that the UK-India research and innovation partnership has played in bringing together the best researchers in both countries which are actively cooperating to address the global challenges through the application of science and technology.

The two Ministers noted that the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) has been successful in building new scientific partnerships through joint research projects and networking. It was agreed in principle to augment and continue UKIERI Phase III.  (KNN Bureau)