india

Updated: Dec 04, 2019 00:33 IST

India and Sweden have put in place a roadmap to drive collaboration in research and innovation, including partnerships and funding for projects focused on smart cities and clean technologies.

The roadmap was the outcome of the first high-level dialogue on innovation that was jointly inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf in New Delhi on Monday.

The dialogue, held under the Joint Innovation Partnership agreement signed during Modi’s visit to Sweden last year, gathered 30 government officials, prominent industrialists and academicians from both sides and created a platform to provide overall strategic direction for a joint innovation policy.

The dialogue focused on short and long-term projects in strategic areas such as circular economy (a system that stresses reduction, reuse and recycling of resources), digital health, artificial intelligence, sustainable energy and future mobility.

The India-Sweden Collaborative Industrial Research and Development Programme, teaming Sweden’s government agency for innovation, Vinnova, and India’s department of science and technology, will fund three projects in the field of smart cities and clean technologies, digitalisation and the internet of things.

Research and development projects, focused on co-development of new products or technologies will be funded under this new programme. Vinnova will provide funding to Swedish participants up to 250,000 euros as a grant and the Indian side will make a conditional grant of up to 50% with a limit of Rs 1.5 crores per project to Indian partners.

Besides, India’s department of science and technology and the Swedish Research Council will fund 20 bilateral projects in computer science and material science to support new or existing collaborative groups. The Swedish council will provide 1.4 million euros for two years while the Indian side will provide matching funding.

India’s department of biotechnology and Vinnova will focus on the use of artificial intelligence to provide scalable innovative and flexible health solutions in both countries.

India and Sweden have also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to increase collaboration in polar research. The agreement covers scientific, technical and infrastructural collaboration and sharing of resources and data.

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