India and Germany to collaborate on R&D

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The German Federal Government has launched a campaign titled “India and Germany: Strategic Partners for Innovation” to enable and facilitate mutually beneficial R&D collaborations between Indian and German R&D institutions and companies.

The campaign will present German research institutions, competence networks and companies that are active in the field of R&D as participants in ongoing events and exhibitions in India.  The collaborative R&D will be in areas like biotechnology, energy, health research, production technologies and environmental technologies. .

The Campaign was highlighted at the Indian Engineering and Technology Fair (IETF) held in Bangalore recently. Some of the projects that have were showcased at the Indian Engineering Technology Fair in Bangalore are:

* The Riverbank Filtration Network (RBFN): A sustainable low cost technology for producing drinking water of good quality by using the river bank as a filter.

* SUGAR: A project aimed at producing natural gas from marine methane hydrates to sequester carbon dioxide from power plants and other industrial resources as carbon dioxide hydrate in marine sediments.

* Production Technologies for Renewable Energies in India: A project to enable the development and manufacturing of appropriate renewable energy equipment in India while particularly considering India’s specific infrastructure and requirements.

* The German Academic Exchange programme showcasing the Institutions and the programmes for facilitating exchange of Students.

* The Frankfurt Rhine Main Region was also presented to showcase its hi-tech capabilities.

Verena Mueller, International Bureau of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany said: “Though India and Germany have been collaborating for a long time, the relationship lacked a proper framework. This initiative is intended primarily to intensify the cooperation between the two countries. We would like to introduce German competence in R&D to our Indian partners so as to encourage mutually beneficial partnerships. We would like the partnerships to be in business, academia and R&D”.

Indian businesses and R&D collaborating with their German partners will benefit from access to a continent which has a single currency and visa system. Despite the global economic slowdown, Germany also has the strongest economy in Europe.

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Dept. of Science and Technology (DST), government of India have also signed an MoU to jointly allocate a sum of Euro 20mn in total over five years for supporting mutually beneficial R&D projects, through the establishment of the Indo German Science and Technology Centre in Delhi. 

The Campaign would also serve to ensure a strong pipeline of projects for the IGSTC by bringing German Industry, Research and Universities in contact with their Indian counterparts. Under the aegis of the Campaign, several events will be held in India over the next 1 and a half years. These would be in the form of German Delegations to India, participation in key Trade Events, Conferences and Road Shows.