New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) The newly initiated India-ICTP Co-operation Fund will deepen scientific collaboration and create greater opportunities for Indian researchers by institutionalising the longstanding partnership between India and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Union Minister of State Dr. Jitendra Singh said on Sunday.
The initiative was formalised through the signing of a Letter of Intent (LoI) between the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and ICTP during Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Jitendra Singh’s visit to ICTP in Trieste, Italy.
The Letter of Intent was exchanged on behalf of India by Dr Praveenkumar Somasundaram, Head of International Cooperation at DST.
Welcoming the development, Dr Singh said the India-ICTP Co-operation Fund would provide greater momentum to the existing engagement between the two sides and generate wider benefits for Indian researchers.
He emphasised the importance of institutionalising the longstanding relationship to further strengthen scientific collaboration and facilitate greater mobility of researchers.
The initiative builds on decades of cooperation between India and ICTP, which has witnessed active participation by Indian scientists, researchers and students across a range of academic and research programmes.
The proposed fund is expected to create a structured mechanism to support and expand these interactions, particularly by providing more opportunities for Indian researchers to engage with the international scientific community.
ICTP is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading centres for advanced research, higher education and capacity building in physics, mathematics and related scientific disciplines.
Over the years, it has maintained close engagement with India’s scientific ecosystem through collaborative research projects, academic exchanges, workshops and training programmes.
A number of Indian institutions, including the Department of Science and Technology, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and leading universities, have partnered with ICTP on research and capacity-building initiatives.
Indian researchers have also benefited from ICTP’s visiting fellowships, diploma courses and postdoctoral programmes.
The collaboration spans several frontier areas of science, including high-energy physics, astrophysics, climate modelling and computational science, with ICTP experts regularly interacting with Indian scientific communities working in these fields.
–IANS
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