India and UK have agreed to work together in two major initiatives in the fields of Solar Energy and Nano Material Research, inter alia.
By Belal Khan
The announcement was made by Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan after his meeting with Jo Johnson, Minister of State for Universities and Science, UK at an event in London.
As a part of the commitment to the Solar Alliance, the India-UK networked Centre on Solar Energy would be established. It would be linked to India’s renewable energy mission and UK’s Supergens Programme.
The research projects will focus on systems level design and development covering Solar energy generation, storage systems and grid integration particularly for micro-grid systems. India would be investing Rs.50 crores over a period of five years with matching contribution from Research Council UK (RCUK) under the Newton-Bhabha Programme.
Further, both sides would work towards augmenting the India-UK Centre of Advanced Manufacturing through DST-RCUK cooperation linked to the Make in India Program and UK’s Catapult Centre program. The projects will be designed to deliver industry-relevant results that can be readily applied to current challenges in manufacturing supply chain.
Under the Newton-Bhabha Programme, the two sides have also agreed on a collaborative program on Energy Efficiency in Built Environment as a part of the Smart Cities mission. Both the countries have agreed on common research agenda focused on energy-efficient building envelop, low energy cooling and thermal comfort as well as energy efficient technologies for city and community level.
