IIT Roorkee GNEC hosts ‘Indo-German Partnership Workshop’ to enhance scientific cooperation

NEW DELHI: Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee’s (IIT Roorkee) International Relations Office organized "Indo-German Partnership Workshop" to enhance scientific cooperation and strengthen ties between Indian and German institutions.

The theme for the event was "Bridging Horizons: Indo-German Scientific Collaboration at IIT Roorkee," with two distinct sessions. The workshop was hosted in Greater Noida Center (GNEC), another campus of the institute located in the NCR region.

The first session, titled "German Excellence: Unveiling Scientific Opportunities," showcased the projects, research domains, and plans of various German universities and funding agencies. Representatives from Germany, including DAAD (New Delhi) represented by Katja Lasch and Shikha Sinha, as well as the Indo-German Science and Technology Centre (IGSTC) represented by PV Lalitha Nair, were present.

Representatives from several German institutions, such as the University of Potsdam, University of Göttingen, Freie Universität Berlin, and University of Cologne, also spoke at the event. “The German participants shared their expectations from leading Indian institutes to reinforce Indo-German cooperation, offering valuable insights to streamline collaborative efforts,” the institute said.

The theme of the second session was "IIT Roorkee - Forging Pathways to Strengthen Cooperation". This session highlighted IIT Roorkee's research capabilities, infrastructure, and areas of expertise.

Also Read | IIT Bhilai, German Academic Exchange Service collaborate to strengthen research, bilateral ties

IIT Roorkee was represented by Vimal Chandra Srivastava, dean, International Relations; Akshay Dvivedi, dean SRIC; P Arumugam, department of physics; and Ankit Agrawal, DAAD research ambassador talked about the potential of IIT Roorkee for scientific collaboration and support for building partnership between Indian universities and German institutes.

The officials also discussed research collaborations and noted that “exchange of students and young researchers between India and Germany has increased by leaps and bounds over the past years”.

The countries have recently launched a new initiative on Indo-German Research Training Group (IRTG).

Speaking on the occasion, IIT Roorkee director KK Pant said: "The Indo-German Partnership Workshop at IIT Roorkee served as an invaluable platform for bolstering scientific collaboration between India and Germany, fostering mutual growth, and setting the stage for future cooperation and innovation. In fact India ranks second after China in the list of countries with the largest number of overseas students in Germany (as of 2021)."