Berhampur: All seven Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in the country have signed a joint memorandum of understanding (MoU) with New York’s University of Buffalo.
The tie-up between the American university and IISERs in Kolkata, Pune, Bhopal, Thiruvananthapuram, Tirupati, Mohali and Berhampur was formalised at IISER Berhampur campus in Laudigaon on Friday.
The objective of the MoU is to establish a multi-party collaborative framework for long-term multi-institutional and international collaboration in educational and research fields that are compatible with the orientation and mission of each institution, and relevant to the academic, scientific, industrial, social, and cultural interests and needs of the respective countries.
The cooperation agreement will pave the way to plan for joint research and training of students and researchers in basic sciences covering Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, Bioscience, and related areas to meet 21st-century challenges in energy, environment, healthcare, agriculture, and security.
Describing the collaboration as a historic occasion, IISER Berhampur Director Prof. Ashok Kumar Ganguli said the institutions will discuss innovative models for student exchange and recruiting Masters and PhD students.
“It’s a major step forward for the IISERs. The signing of the MoU will bring joint research, education and many things together. This is the first step. The modalities and details would be worked out. Several projects were discussed for the last two days before the MoU was signed. We jointly worked on many projects on national and global interests, areas spanning biotechnology, cancer, research to AI technology and several other areas,” said Prof. Ganguli.
“We are going to send immediate proposals, plans for a joint call for a US funding mechanism. Few proposals to be sent immediately. But this is only the first step. Larger proposals can be worked out from various other funding agencies. This is to bring the institutions together and give faculties to meet their counterparts and showcase the various areas we do and am very hopeful for the great beginning, also intra-IISER meeting has been made possible,” the Director added.
Faculties from various departments of University of Buffalo, several directors of IISERs were present during the signing of MoU.
Among them were Prof. Ganguli, IISER Mohali Director Prof. Anil Kumar Tripathi, IISER Tirupati Director Prof. Santanu Bhattacharya, IISER Pune Director Prof. Sunil Bhagwat and Prof. Paras Prasad, Executive Director Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics of University of Buffalo.
Prof. Venu Govindaraju Vice-President for Research & Economic Development of University of Buffalo described the MoU as a comprehensive research programme and convergence of multifunctional materials, photonics, bioscience, and artificial intelligence and a better chance to find a solution.