BioSpectrum – India, Canada to begin key research partnerships

BioSpectrum – India, Canada to begin key research partnerships

The Indian Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and IC-IMPACTS Centres of Excellence (IC-IMPACTS) of Canada will jointly fund Indian-Canadian research and innovation collaborations

Singapore: The Indian Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and IC-IMPACTS Centres of Excellence, Canada, are the implementing organizations from the Indian and Canadian sides respectively. IC-IMPACTS Centres of Excellence is a not-for-profit organization established by the Federal Government of Canada through the Networks of Centres of Excellence Program to serve as a pan-Canadian agency responsible for the delivery of research programs in the areas of safe and sustainable infrastructure, integrated water management, and public health: disease prevention and treatment between Canada and India.

The deadline for project proposal submission has been kept as August 1, 2014. The funding decisions are expected to be taken by no later than December 1, 2014.

Potential projects will be funded by IC-IMPACTS in Canada, and by DBT in India. The joint projects must meet the requirements of the funding organizations. In India, the general funding terms of DBT will be applied. In Canada, the general funding terms of IC-IMPACTS and the tri-agency granting councils of Canada will be applied.

The DBT IC-IMPACTS partnership has been designed to strengthen existing, and stimulate new, innovation collaborations between researchers working in India and Canada and to stimulate entrepreneurial deployment of research outcomes into community contexts. Through this collaboration, IC-IMPACTS and DBT will support the innovation communities of Canada and India by each committing $1.5 million (Canadian dollars / equivalent Indian Rupees) to the joint funding of collaborative research projects submitted through this joint call for proposals.

The partnership between DBT and IC-IMPACTS aims to achieve four objectives including to foster international research and innovation partnerships focused on initiatives that will have direct, deployable outcomes and technologies to benefit citizens in communities in India and Canada; to showcase Canadian and Indian research and industrial innovation to each nation and accelerate the transfer of knowledge and technologies; to develop innovation and knowledge transfer skills through the training of graduate, doctoral and post-doctoral students participating in research projects and through extended skill development activities focused on research excellence, entrepreneurial training, and knowledge transfer and commercialization expertise, thus producing the next generation of research innovators who have the essential skills to move research discoveries from laboratories into the community; and, to strengthen overall research and innovation relationships between Canada and India and through these partnerships extend Canadian and Indian innovation leadership.