IIT Roorkee part of a Joint Collaborative Programme with Foundation of Science & Technology, Portugal
Roorkee: On the invitation from the Ministry of Science, Technology & Higher Education, Govt. of Portugal, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee along with IIT Madras & IIT Gandhinagar recently visited Portugal to explore opportunities for academic and research collaborations and to sign an MOU for the same. The delegation visited some of the leading universities, institutes, and research centers of excellence in Portugal including the Faculty of Sciences and Technology – Coimbra University; Science and Technology Park from Porto University; Aveiro University and the Engineering School – Minho University among others. The visit to these institutes was followed by a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which was signed between the three IITs and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). The MOU was exchanged during a ceremony in the presence of India’s Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi and Portugal’s Prime Minister António Costa.
Speaking about the international collaboration, Prof. Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee, said, “We are privileged to be part of this international collaborative group and look forward to joining hands with our international counterparts for interdisciplinary research work. We are sure that this will be a great learning experience for researchers from both sides and the combined effort will yield results and will help in addressing various issues related to society in a scientific manner.”
Some of the key highlights of the MOU are:
– Joint Doctoral training and research
– Joint action on Undergraduate engineering education
– Collaborative Interdisciplinary Research Projects
– Joint research on “India-Portugal Contemporary Issues of Technical Change”
– Joint development of interdisciplinary master programs as well as specialized master programs
– Joint organization of technical workshops, seminars, study tours and training sessions
The activities referred under this Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will be financed with funds allocated under the budgets made available as per the agreement between Portuguese and Indian Funding Agencies. These will be subject to the conditions under the agreement as enumerated in Terms of Reference (ToR) for this MoU between the Department of Science and Technology (DST) of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of India and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). For this purpose, a joint fund of 4 Million Euros has been established by both the governments on equal contribution basis.
A Portuguese delegation would visit all the three IITs by the end of 2017 followed by the launch of the first “Call for Joint R&D Proposals” under this MOU. The joint R&D proposals would be submitted to both FCT and DST.