During her visit to the subcontinent in February 2007, Federal Minister of Education and Research Dr Annette Schavan took advantage of the opportunity to forge a strategic partnership with India. The visit was also part of Germany's EU Council Presidency. For the first time, EU ministers of science met in India and held a conference to identify the goals India and the EU have in common. The Federal Minister also paid visits to Indian research institutions and key locations o industry.
Scientific and Technological Cooperation (STC) with India is one of
the most important strategic goals for the future of German-Indian
relations. Federal Chancellor Merkel and Prime Minister Singh
underlined the significance of STC in the
German-Indian Joint Declaration, which was signed on 23 April 2006
on the occasion of the Indian Prime Minister's visit to
Germany.
One of the aims of the High-Tech Strategy for Germany is to increase collaboration in growing markets with countries that have a dynamic research environment. The Federal Government supports cooperation with countries that are strongly expanding their research and development capacities and are therefore becoming attractive partners for Germany in its role as a key high technology location. An agreement was made with India to work towards establishing a German-Indian Centre of Science, Research and Technology. Due to the rapid expansion of its research and development expertise, India is an extremely attractive partner for Germany. The EU-India Ministerial Science Conference, a meeting of EU science ministers that was held on 7 and 8 February 2007, underlined the importance of India for the entire European Union.
India has become a Great Power in the field of
information technology (in March 2005, India made an agreement with
China to attain global market leadership in this area). India is
also pursuing the goal of achieving a leading position in research
and development in the field of biotechnology (see "National
Strategy for Biotechnology Development", April 2005). The boom in
start-ups operating in this field in Bangalore and Hyderabad is
proof that this strategy is working. India mainly cooperates with
Germany at an economic and industrial level. However, India also
has an interest in intensifying cooperation in research and is
becoming increasingly attractive as a partner for
Germany.
German-Indian STC relations are based on the 1971 agreement on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and space, the 1974 agreement on cooperation in scientific research and technological development, and numerous individual agreements between German and Indian research institutions and intermediary organizations.
Scientific and technological cooperation with India is categorized into three areas that complement each other:
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Student and scientist exchanges through the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH), the German Research Association (DFG), and other organizations. This is fertile ground for future projects and long-term collaborations, including campaigns that form part of the "Hi Potentials" project.
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Joint research projects: on the one hand, this includes what are known as mobility projects run by the BMBF/IB in fields of applied sciences and by the DAAD (through the project-based personnel exchange programme) in more basic research-oriented fields as well as in the humanities and social sciences. On the other hand, these can be larger joint projects, such as the satellite missions.
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Workshops, conferences, and reciprocal visits of specialist delegations, with the aim of initiating new activities.
Since 1996, the extent and aims of STC have been determined by the Indo-German Committee on Science and Technology (5th meeting: 22/23 September 2003 in Berlin), which is based on agreements that were made between the heads of government in 1988 and 1994. The 6th meeting took place in India on 25/26 September 2006. The STC activities are run by the International Bureau of the BMBF.
According to the decisions made at the last meeting of the committee, the key areas of scientific and technological cooperation are:
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Biotechnology
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Health research
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Space research, technology and applications
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Information technology
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Environmental technology
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Materials research
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Sustainability research
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Production technology (new starting from 2007)
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Disaster and security research (new starting from 2007)
Approximately 50 BMBF mobility measures are currently in place, providing support to about 75 Indian scientists and engineers every year who come to work at German universities and research institutions, and enabling approximately 75 German scientists to travel to India. In these projects, Indian funding organizations cover the stays of Germans in India and the flight expenses of the Indians coming to Germany. In addition to the mobility measures, approximately 15 individual visits with the aim of establishing initial contact and an average of 5 bilaterally financed workshops are supported every year.
In the area of education, the marketing
activities of the High Potentials Campaign are bearing fruit. In
recent years, the number of Indian students in Germany has
increased considerably. The number of Indian students is increasing
more quickly than the percentage of students from any other
country: it has risen by 500per since 1997.However, at 15 Percente,
the number of female students is still very low, even compared to
other Asian countries (on average, 50per of all international
students in Germany are female). The Master's Sandwich
Programme,which is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic
Cooperation and Development (BMZ),is another example of a
successful exchange programme. Indian students from one of the
seven IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) complete their
dissertations at one of six German Universities of Technology and
additionally do an internship in industry.A significant number of
these students return to Germany after completing their degrees.
When it comes to the number of students who receive scholarships
from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, India takes third place
after the USA and Japan.
Here are some examples of current collaborations:
In the area of basic research, India will participate in the international project FAIR, which aims to construct new accelerators to be used in ion and antiproton beam research at the Heavy Ion Research Center in Darmstadt. An agreement is to be concluded in 2007 setting out India's contributions to the construction of FAIR - both financial and content-related.
The two countries have been cooperating successfully in the fields of language engineering and artificial intelligence since 2003. Following a joint workshop organized by the German Centre for Artificial Intelligence and the Indian Anna University in Chennai, a wide-ranging proposal for the development of a telephone-based, multilingual announcement system for travel information was elaborated in cooperation with the Indian Railways. Germany would participate mainly in the R&D side of this project.
In the area of environmental research, two projects that included Indian partners were successful in the BMBF "Megacities" call for proposals and will receive funding during the initial phase from 2005 to 2007.
German scientific and intermediary organizations are currently stepping up their activities in India:
The Max Planck Society (MPG) is interested in expanding its contacts with Indian institutions. To this end, it carried out a fact-finding mission to India in January 2004. The key areas of cooperation are infection biology, bioinformatics, informatics, and nanotechnology. The partner groups (currently 10) of MPG fellows at Indian research institutions are highly respected and successful. Their number is to be extended with the financial support of the DST in India.
There is an initiative from the German Research Association (DFG) to establish an International Postgraduate Study Group with India with a focus on nanotechnology. In late October 2004, DFG president Prof. Winnacker travelled to India with a delegation and signed a framework agreement with the Indian Department of Science and Technology (DST), which is a precondition for the establishment of a postgraduate study group. In a joint programme with the Indian National Science Academy, the DFG also supports scientist exchanges, for example in fact-finding missions. For several years now, the DFG has been funding and organizing visits of Indian doctoral students to German universities and research institutions following the annual meetings of Nobel laureates in Lindau (Lake Constance), a measure that is seen as very positive in India and offers excellent advertising for Germany as a key location of research. The DFG, DAAD, AvH and Chambers of Commerce Abroad all have offices at the "German Centre for Research and Education" in New Delhi.
The Helmholtz Association (HGF) cooperates directly with Indian research institutions. The Research Centre Jülich (FZJ) deserves special mention - it collaborates with numerous Indian partner institutions, especially in the areas of materials research, biotechnology, and environmental research. The collaboration between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) focusses on remote sensing and joint satellite missions. The BIRD mission is a particularly successful example. The Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) collaborates with various institutes of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), particularly in the area of infection biology and bioinformatics. In April 2007, it opened the (virtual) Indo-German Science Centre on Infectious Diseases. The German Cancer Research Centre has cooperated intensively with different Indian partner institutions in the area of cancer research for over 20 years. The Helmholtz Association signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in Autumn 2005 in order to improve basic conditions, for example in the exchange of sample material.
original article from Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany
