BHUBANESWAR: The Indian Institute of Technology-Bhubaneswar will collaborate with eight global universities with an aim to improve the academic and research collaboration between IITs of the country and best global institutions to address problems having national and international relevance in different sectors.
The collaboration programme, to be carried out under ‘Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration” (SPARC) of Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD), will help accelerate its research programmes in various fields and widen the research scope for students.
As part of the programme, IIT-B will partner with UK-based University of Dundee and Brunel University; US-based University of Illinois, University of Minnesota, University of California and New York University; Singapore based Nanyang Technological University and New Zealand-based University of Auckland.
The institutions will together work on 11 projects in the field of earth, green and renewable technologies, affordable health care, energy and water sustainability, advanced sensors and electronics communications, advanced interdisciplinary sciences and technologies for forensics and security and safety.
Sources said the Institute had sought approval from MHRD to work on 25 research projects under this collaborative programme. However, the remaining projects have not been been considered by the Ministry yet. The HRD Ministry, meanwhile, has sanctioned around `6.18 crore to the institute for the programme.
The SPARC grants will help the institute in undertaking joint research work and offer short term courses to the students, said IIT Bhubaneswar Director RV Raja Kumar.