Renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding between NSERC, DST, and DBT

Monday, May 13, 2022 – Celebrating an important MOU which has been signed between the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Department of Science and Technology (DST India), and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT India) which identifies IC-IMPACTS as the lead delivery agency on Canada-India Science and Technology collaborations.

India-Canada Centre for Innovative Multidisciplinary Partnerships to Accelerate Community Transformation and Sustainability (IC-IMPACTS), launched in 2013, has demonstrated that integrating Canadian and Indian researchers, companies, and communities to address socioeconomic challenges is effective in stimulating high-impact, application-oriented research that meets the sustainable economic and community development needs of both countries. Partnerships with Canadian Indigenous communities and communities in India have led to transformative social and economic changes in those communities, and IC-IMPACTS’ technologies are now being scaled up and installed in other communities across Canada and India.

IC-IMPACTS has completed 78 projects, in the fields of water management, public health, food security and sustainable infrastructure. Their work includes technology development, deployment and demonstration, and is co-funded by the Indian federal government through DST and DBT. IC-IMPACTS has since trained 1,163 Indian and Canadian graduate students. Commercialization outcomes include 31 patents filed, 8 start-up companies launched, and technologies deployed across 24 community partner sites, with a focus in Canada on Indigenous and Northern communities. Scientific outcomes include 1,298 publications presented at more than 130 leading international venues.

This MOU renewal will support continued collaboration between researchers, industry innovators, community organizations and government agencies from both countries to find solutions to key challenges in order to support healthy communities. This is an important step in furthering our partnership. Moreover, the extension of the NSERC-DST-DBT MoU will facilitate IC-IMPACTS’ calls for proposals and reinforce positive research relations between Canada-India.