2023.03.13 Update

Office chief of global program office reports on the history of collaborative activities to date at IIT-H Support Consortium

On Tuesday, March 7, based on the request of the Southwest Asia Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ms. Iwasawa, office chief of the global program office, global networking division, NIMS, gave a presentation entitled "NIMS's past collaboration activities with the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IIT-H)" at the IIT-H support consortium.

The Government of India has requested the Japanese Government to support IIT-H with Yen loans for the construction of new campus facilities, including department buildings, a large lecture hall, and a library, which will be the core of IIT-H's educational and research environment. In response to this request, the Japanese government decided to provide Japanese Yen loans for six of the new IIT-H campus facilities (i.e., International House, Student Union, Business Incubation Center, International Conference Hall, Research Center, and Central Library), which could serve as symbols of human resource exchange between Japan and India. The support has been provided through the "FRIENDSHIP" (JICA) project (English project name: "the Project for Future Researchers at IIT-H to enhance network development with scholarship of Japan").
The six buildings are scheduled to be completed up to August 2023. In response to this, the "FRIENDSHIP 2" (JICA) project, which promotes human and academic exchange by effectively utilizing the completed buildings, was launched last year.

In addition, the IIT-H Support Consortium, led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with the participation of universities (including the University of Tokyo, Osaka University, Keio University and so on), private companies, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Japan Foundation, and JICA as members, is continuing activities to realize effective IITH support through an all-Japan framework of industry-government-academia.
Specific examples of support include companies accepting internship students and considering them for employment, and the universities of Japan providing good opportunities for IIT-H master course students to enroll the doctoral programs of Japanese Universities. NIMS also officially joined this consortium in 2021 to be one of member institutes.

The key points of the presentation

The key points of the office chief's online presentation on that day are as follows;
First of all, based on the previous connection between Prof. Murty, President of IIT-H, and NIMS, she explained that the signing ceremony of the inter-institutional MoU with IITH was held at NIMS on Tuesday, November 12, 2019. This was followed by a report on the following key collaborative activities from 1. to 10.

  1. Explanation was given regarding the signing of the International Cooperative Graduate Program (ICGP) of NIMS in January 2020.
  2. The office chief Ms. Iwasawa explained that a joint research center between IIT-H and NIMS has been launched to further strengthen the tie between IIT-H and NIMS.She also explained that an online signing ceremony was held at NIMS regarding the inauguration of the joint research center.
  3. The office chief of global program office explained that a simultaneous Japan-India joint press release was held to commemorate the inauguration of the joint research center between IIT-H and NIMS, and that there was a great response to this press release in both countries.
  4. The office chief of the global program office introduced the faculty members and their students who were firstly accepted from IIT-H after the inauguration of the joint research center.
  5. The office chief reported on the online workshop conducted with three IIT universities using the financial support from the JST Sakura Science Plan program.
    The office chief of global program office reported that the online workshop was held with IIT-H, IIT-Guwahati (IIT-G), and IIT-Varanasi (Banaras Hindu University (IIT-Varanasi)) with funding from JST's Sakura Science Program, with the aim of expanding the core collaboration between NIMS and IIT-H to global collaborative activities with other IIT universities.
  6. An example of the use of the JICA Friendship 2 Research Grant Academic Collaboration (AC) was reported.
    In response to the joint research proposal by NIMS and IIT-H faculty member, the proposal was approved for the JICA Friendship 2 Research Grant Academic Collaboration, which provides funding to the IIT-H side. This led to discussions between IIT-H faculty and NIMS researcher regarding a specific research plan when graduate students are dispatched to NIMS, and a new joint research project was reported to have been initiated.
  7. Introductions were made of faculty members and their students who will be accepted as long-term visitors at NIMS from IIT-H in FY 2023.
  8. The office chief reported that the JST had asked the NIMS President participation to the Japan-India University (Presidential level) Forum.
  9. The day after the Japan-India University (Presidential-level) Forum, the several forum participants visited NIMS. The office chief of the global program office also exchanged views with the Presidential level manager of the IIT-Madras which is signer for agreements of MoU and ICGP with NIMS at the end of last year, on future initiatives.
  10. Finally, the office chief summarized her presentation and introduced the future cooperation policy with Indian universities using the one slide shown below.

After the office chief's presentation, the regional coordinator of the southwest Asia division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs commented “I am so glad to see that the cooperation between NIMS and IIT-H seems to be going well”.

1.Ms. Iwasawa, office chief of the global program office, explaining the NIMS ICGP agreement concluded between IIT-H and NIMS.


2.Office chief Ms. Iwasawa explaining the scene of online signing ceremony together with the purpose of inauguration of the joint research center together.


3.Snapshot of the office chief explaining the Japan-India simultaneous joint press release and the big response to the press release in both countries.


4.Group photos of NIMS host researchers with faculty members and PhD course students who were accepted from IIT-H to the joint research center for the first time.


5.Photocopy of official report FY2021 which was published by office of Sakura Science Program.


6.The example of collaboration project between IIT-H and NIMS selected by JICA Friendship 2 Research Grant (AC) program.


7.Photos of the NIMS host researchers for long term visitors from IIT-H and the faculty members who are scheduled for the acceptance in FY 2023 as long-term visitors to the Joint Research Center.


8.Group photo at the venue of the Japan-India University (Presidential Level) Forum.


9.Group photo of visitors and NIMS officials on the day after the Japan-India University (Presidential level) Forum.


10.Slide of explanation of future cooperation policy between NIMS and Indian universities.




Contact

Global Program Office, Global Networking Division
National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS)
1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0047 Japan
E-Mail: academic-collaboration[at]nims.go.jp