Global scientific engagement with India

Professor C.N.R. Rao, Head of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Prime Minister of India, and a team of distinguished delegates visited the University to attend an EPSRC-funded workshop on Advanced Materials for Energy and Sustainable Manufacturing, held at St John's College.

The workshop was part of a collaboration between teams in Cambridge (led by Prof Sir Richard Friend), Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore.

It was the final component of a one year “Global Engagement” project supported by the EPSRC, which has supported a number of collaborations between groups in Cambridge (in Physics, Materials Science and Engineering) and groups at the JNCASR and IISc. 

This project built on the many ‘bottom up’ research contacts that have been set up between Cambridge and Bangalore in this broad area of research and it intended to help frame longer-term research objectives that could be developed between Cambridge and Bangalore.

The workshop was opened by Prof Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, who spoke warmly of the long-standing partnerships Cambridge has with India and specifically with Bangalore, and encouraged building up on the present one year EPSRC project.

Professor C.N.R. Rao thanked the Vice-Chancellor for his support and announced a fellowship scheme from JNCASR which would support two Postdoctoral fellows to visit Cambridge for furthering research under the Global AMES platform.

The workshop consisted of a series of presentations that highlighted the collaborative work that has been performed during this project.

In addition a number of talks, on related topics, were provided by invited guests from both Bangalore and Cambridge, which stimulated considerable scientific debate. 

The future goal is to develop the work and ideas from these interactions into further collaborations in this important area of materials research.