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£10m funding for UK-India telecoms research project

A £10m funding injection for a large India-UK ICT research project has been announced by Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts.

Mr Willetts met with Indian Science and Technology Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh in London, and secured the funding for the collaboration which employs 200 scientists in both countires.

Investment will support phase two of research into next generation telecommunications networks, platforms and applications that will carry voice, video and data in the future internet.

It is part of the India-UK Advanced Technology Centre (IU-ATC), a programme funded by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Government of India’s Department of Science & Technology (DST) and industrial partners from both countries.

The Centre will look at low-cost solutions for rural access to broadband, among other processes including communications for disaster situations and virtual classrooms.

Speaking at the meeting of the India-UK Ministerial Science and Innovation Council, Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts will say: “This £10 million investment will build on the UK’s excellent record of research collaboration with India.

“It will bring together leading universities and institutes from both countries to develop technological solutions to a range of important issues, from rural health to disaster response.”

Dr T Ramasami, Secretary of DST and the Chair of the Joint UK-India Panel added: “India and the UK are accomplishing excellent work together in the ICT sector.

“Our research is on developing applications that would improve the quality of millions of lives and enable social and economic inclusion within India and the UK, both in rural and urban areas.”

Leading the project at Professor Gerard Parr, University of Ulster’s Chair in Telecommunications Engineering, and Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras.

Professor Parr commented: “I am delighted that EPSRC and DST have given our team the opportunity to further develop our plans and focus our efforts in order to derive maximum impact and benefit from our research activities.

“We intend to work closely with our funders and industry to ensure we fully exploit the promise of technological advances in Next Generation Networks.”

Lead UK industrial partner, BT Innovate and Design, is joined by Toshiba Research Laboratories Europe, and India there is involvement with SMEs and companies such as Wipro, Infosys and Sasken.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .