Imperial College London and Science Gallery Bengaluru (SGB) have announced a partnership to facilitate the exchange of talent and knowledge with the development of new facilities, a joint fellowship programme, and public engagement activities.
The announcement, made by Hugh Brady, President, Imperial College, on his visit to India as part of a UK delegation led by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, comes around five months following the launch of Imperial Global India in Bengaluru in May.
The Hindu caught up with Hugh Brady, who spoke in detail on what the partnership means for both countries.
Tell us more about the new partnership between Imperial College London and Science Gallery Bengaluru
What we’re trying to do together is to create a cutting-edge hub of innovation between the UK, India and the rest of the world. It will see us working together to develop new facilities in the Science Gallery Bengaluru, establish a new joint fellowship programme and develop a suite of public engagement programmes to do everything from inspiring young people to pursue a career in science and technology to helping build greater public trust in science.
We want bi-directional flow of talent, ideas and capital between the two innovation ecosystems. This partnership builds on the momentum that we’ve already achieved through our Imperial Global India Hub in Bengaluru. Imperial, Global India has gained very significant momentum in less than six months.
Does the new partnership come under the Imperial Global Hub India?
Yes. We will essentially co-locate our global hub with the Science Gallery.
I must stress, our Bangalore hub is a hub for India. So, while it builds on our very strong relationships with IISc and the National Centre for Biological Sciences, we are looking at other collaborative projects too. We’ve just launched our latest 10 collaborative projects seeded by our India Connect Fund. They address important areas such as climate, sustainability, emerging technologies, energy and health, and involve 10 Indian partners in Bangalore and across India.
An example of the projects that were funded this time is quantum modelling tools for climate adoption in arid lands. That’s in collaboration with IIT Bombay. We’ve another on cultivating methane, removing microbes from trees to tackle climate change. That’s with researchers in Pune. Another one is on various applications of nanorobots for biomedical purposes, with IISc Bangalore.
The India-UK ties seem to be currently at one of the strongest points ever. What would collaborations in research, technology and innovation mean for both countries in this context?
There’s opportunity for both countries through collaboration to get greater research and innovation scale and impact. You would see many more collaborative PhD programmes in key areas such as quantum, engineering, biology, biotechnology and clean tech. You would see many more larger research programmes developing between the two countries and a much stronger bridge between the two innovation ecosystems.
We’re already starting to bring our student founders, who want to learn more about the Indian market – here, to co-create and innovate with Indian partners, and to give young Indian entrepreneurs an entrance point into the UK’s innovation ecosystem. At a time when so many parts of the world are starting to look inwards, it’s fantastic that India and the UK are looking outwards.
Are there particular technologies or streams of science that the new partnership would focus on?
Both Imperial and our partners at Science Gallery Bengaluru are inspired by the potential to harness science and technology to tackle the grand challenges facing kind of humanity and our planet. That ranges from antimicrobial resistance through to food security and water security, all the way through to climate change.
We are also conscious of the strength of the UK-India relationship. Both prime ministers attach great importance to the Technology Security Initiative. There are areas where we think we can make a real difference by working with Indian partners, such as Science Gallery. For example, advanced materials, quantum and biotechnology are areas where we’re very strong and where India has significant capability.
What are your thoughts on the Indian population at Imperial?
We have almost 850 Indian students. They’re young, smart, ambitious and vibrant. Imperial has innovation as part of the DNA of the institution, and the Indian students love that, and we love them for it. They’re across our four faculties of science, medicine, engineering and business, and they’re spread pretty evenly between undergraduate, master’s and PhD students.
What is India to the innovator community at Imperial?
Our community in Imperial in London recognises the tremendous momentum that India has achieved in science and technology, and how that is transmitting through into innovation, entrepreneurship, startups and scale up of companies.
We pride ourselves on the fact that we’ve been involved with India for many years. Some of our professors were involved in a consultative capacity in the 1950s in the startup of IIT Delhi. Many of our professors have active collaborations in India. In the last five years alone, we’ve published joint papers with over 400 Indian partners. We’ve well over 3,000 Indian alumni. Getting research translated to impact is something that’s very much part of Imperial’s DNA, and we love the way that happens in India.
