India, EU launch new funding initiative for research cooperation

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the European Union on Wednesday launched a joint funding initiative to foster research cooperation under a programme named after Marie Curie that supports research and innovation.

The initiative will be under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) staff exchanges, which is part of Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation programme. The CSIR will top up selected MSCA staff exchanges projects, enabling its institutes to engage in joint research with European and international partners.

The new partnership will strengthen research and innovation ties between Europe and India and drive scientific and technological progress by enhancing bilateral institutional cooperation, collaborative research and researcher exchanges under Horizon Europe, the EU said in a statement.

CSIR scientific and technical staff will be seconded to European research organisations for knowledge-sharing and research activities. This will promote “balanced researcher mobility and long-term collaborations”, the statement said.

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The funding, for the period 2025-2027, will be open to any CSIR institution involved in successful projects that are selected under the upcoming staff exchanges calls.

Through its staff exchanges scheme, the MSCA promotes collaborative research, knowledge transfer and innovation by supporting the secondment of research and innovation staff within international consortia of organisations based in the EU, countries associated to Horizon Europe and third countries.

EU ambassador Hervé Delphin said the co-funding initiative marks a “watershed moment in EU-India research cooperation”. The initiative will support the political commitment to enhancing scientific excellence and people-to-people connectivity, as outlined in the EU-India joint roadmap 2025.

“Facilitating exchanges between our most brilliant researchers will turbocharge joint innovation in all domains and pool our expertise to better address global challenges that impact our economies and societies,” he said.

CSIR director general N Kalaiselvi said: “We are excited to join forces with the EU on this transformative initiative. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions staff exchanges co-funding programme will not only boost the exchanges of our researchers but also forge stronger institutional ties and foster groundbreaking research collaborations.”

CSIR is India’s premier research and development organisation, comprising 37 national laboratories and a dedicated team of more than 8,000 scientific and technical staff. The MSCA is the reference programme for doctoral education and postdoctoral training. It supports researchers, doctoral training and postdoctoral fellowship programmes and collaborative research in all domains.

Since 2014, the MSCA has supported 182 research and innovation projects involving Indian organisations. India ranks first among non-European countries in terms of participation of individual researchers, with more than 2,800 Indian beneficiaries over the past 10 years.