The first ever India-UK Virtual Graduate Research School (VGRS) has been established. This virtual research and innovation centre will drive collaborative fundamental research programmes, research training and technology transfer between the UK and India.

The University of Ulster in Northern Ireland, in partnership with BT and IIT Madras, is leading a consortium of 22 major India-UK industry and academic partners as part of an exciting initiative to establish the India-UK Advanced Technology Centre (IU-ATC) of Excellence in Next Generation Networks Systems and Services.

Under the recent UKIERI-DST Research Award scheme, the consortium secured over $3 million through support from the governments and its partners to establish the VGRS. The VGRS will support the mobility of collaborative PhD and post doctorate projects and a programme of exchange visits within the consortium. As well as important travel funds from the UKIERI-DST Award, the VGRS has attracted excellent additional financial support from academic partners who have made available PhD scholarships. They include the universities of Ulster, Queen Mary, Southampton, Surrey and Bristol, UCL, IIT Madras, IIT Mumbai, IIT Delhi and IISc Bangalore.

The project has also attracted financial support from key industry partners in both countries, including BT, InfoSys, Wipro and Sasken. BT’s support is particularly significant as it provides full PhD scholarships and industrial internships for project partners. The IU-ATC’s UK academic lead, Professor Gerard Parr from the University of Ulster, said, “The IU-ATC has been set up to establish, for the first time, the support infrastructure and creative sponsorship opportunities that will enable successful collaboration between Britain and India’s academic institutions, government and industry in general. The long-term success of this largescale initiative is dependent upon support received from key stakeholders, and we have had excellent engagement and support from BT, Indian organisations and the British and Indian governments. The funding we have received from the UKIERI-DST Award is very important as it provides our VGRS the ability to function and provide real knowledge mobility and research training for graduates to visit and work in both countries. It also provides us with a mandate to further develop our plans.”

Funding will be available to support PhD research training projects and exchange of consortium postgraduate and post-doctorate research scientists in areas of relevance to the IU-ATC work plan agenda, Prof. Parr stated. These include resilient communications infrastructures, embedded energy-aware low-cost devices, pervasive sensors, realtime network data analytics for fixed-wireless broadband, end-to-end network security protocols, cross layer protocols for real-time interoperability, smart antenna design for NG mobile wireless communications and advanced networked ICT services and systems.

Under UKIERI, the VGRS will provide a stepchange in research and education cooperation between UK and India and, given the internationally leading expertise within the consortium, will provide creative opportunities for quality innovative competitive research and academic excellence that will also strive to have economic and social impact in both countries.

The launch of the VGRS was announced by BT at The World Economic Forum – India Economic Summit 2007 in New Delhi, which was organised in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CM). Over 600 industry leaders and policymakers convened last year under the theme “India: Building Centres of Excellence”.

Dr Nader Azarmi, chief technologist at the renowned BT Research Laboratories at Adastral Park, UK, said: “This is a very exciting time for our consortium and BT is delighted to be working as the industrial lead partner. This new funding provides an endorsement of the IU-ATC initiative from both governments and provides us with a mandate to take forward our plans at the larger scale over the next five years.”

The IU-ATC’s PhDs are aimed at UK and Indian PhD candidates who will be selected by the participating IU-ATC universities in India and the UK through normal university selection process. Successful candidates will then be registered as PhD students at the grant holding IU-ATC University. On completion of research and submission and successful defending of their thesis, the students will be awarded PhD degrees from the university that they originally registered with. Speaking on the programme’s strengths, Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT Madras said, “With the creation of the IU-ATC, Indian PhD students can now collaborate in a global, virtual platform, to share innovative research concepts among an elite grouping of UK and Indian academic institutions. The global connectivity of this virtual consortium will ensure the rapid transfer of ideas and technology with the aim of creating breakthrough ICT research.” Matt Bross, Group Chief Technology Officer at BT, said, “The IU-ATC will accelerate competitive technology and knowledge transfer between the UK and India, as well as ensuring stronger collaborations between industry and academic institutions in both countries. The launch of the IU-ATC supports BT’s open approach to innovation – an approach that unleashes innovation beyond the boundaries of BT and enables us to harness the energy and creativity of the best and brightest minds globally.”

Key outcomes from this UKIERI project will be a world-class, internationally competitive, resource for research training and postgraduate capability in Next Generation Network protocols, architectures and system components. No such facility and resource currently exists between the UK and India.

For further information on the IU-ATC please visit the web-site: www.iu-atc.com or contact Prof Gerard Parr.