New indigo broschüre pdf by SEA-EU-NET II

CONTENT Editors Cosima Blasy (ZSI), Katharina Büsel (ZSI), Maria Maia (FCT), and Juliet Tschank (ZSI) With contributions from Elif Dogan Arslan (TÜBITAK), Dominique Aymer de la Chevalerie (CNRS), Begoña Benito (GAIA), Cosima Blasy (ZSI), Katharina Büsel (ZSI), Alexander Degelsegger (ZSI), Florian Gruber (ZSI), Maria Maia (FCT), Dörte Merk (DLR), Marie-Alix Riou (CNRS), Purnima Rupal (CSIR), and Juliet Tschank (ZSI) Design Harald Göstl Legal notice © 2013 New INDIGO www.newindigo.eu

Preface 5 Foreword 7

Published by Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI) Linke Wienzeile 246 1150 Wien Austria www.zsi.at Tel: +43 1 495 04 42 - 0 E-mail: institute@zsi.at All rights reserved. This publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, only with the prior written permission of the publisher. The authors are solely responsible for the content of this publication, which does not represent the opinion of the European Community.

New INDIGO is co-funded under EU’s 7th Framework Programme for RTD under the Capacities Programme – International Cooperation. Initial project duration was 48 months: January 2009 till December 2012 and was extended by 12 months to December 2013. Grant agreement number: 226167 Date of publication: October 2013 First edition Print run: 350 copies

What is New INDIGO? 9 1 Enhancing STI cooperation 11 1.1 Promoting cooperation opportunities 13 1.1.1 … by creating a funding programmes database 13 1.1.2 … by organising events 14 1.1.3 … through the website 15 1.1.4 … through social media 16 1.2 Providing information on the Indian and the European STI landscape 16 1.3 Building the Indian Focal Point Network 17 1.4 Initiating a platform of representatives of European STI organisations in India 19 2 Coordination of Indo-European funding for Research and Technology 23 2.1 New INDIGO calls: General principles and rules 25 2.1.1 From Networking Pilot Programme to Partnership Programme 25 2.1.2 Tackling social challenges 26 2.1.3 Experiences with New INDIGO Joint Calls – Interview with New INDIGO’s call secretariat 35 2.2 New INDIGO calls: Results 37 2.2.1 Participation patterns 37 2.2.2 Some results: A glance into NPP1 39 3 Supporting Science, Technology and Innovation policy cooperation 43 3.1 Providing evidence 47 3.2 Facilitating cross-level dialogue 49 3.3 2020 scenario of successful EU-India STI cooperation and respective policy recommendations 51 3.4 Networking stakeholders at the EU-India STI Cooperation Days 54

Printed in Austria Outlook 57 ISBN 978-3-200-03290-3

List of abbreviations 58

PREFACE

5 Since its inception in 2009, the New INDIGO ERA-NET project has emerged as a successful example of a multilateral partnership at work, involving several European and Indian research funding organisations. The project has interpreted the spirit of the European policy in science and technology pursued by the European Commission and the EU Member States within the Strategic Forum for International Science and Technology Cooperation (SFIC) very well. It has also contributed to put into practice the EU-India Pilot Initiative on water and bio-resources. By implementing four EU-India joint transnational calls â&#x20AC;&#x201C; which will result in 40 multilateral networking and collaborative research projects involving no less than 120 European and Indian institutions in the areas of biotechnology and health, water related challenges, and energy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; New INDIGO has established itself as the reference platform for multicountry cooperation between Europe and India. As witnessed by the joint declaration signed at the 2012 EU-India Summit, the Commission is committed to pursuing the strategic partnership with India in cooperation with the EU Member States. New ERA-NET and Bilateral cooperation projects are planned to be launched in 2013 to support the policy dialogue and more ambitious concrete multilateral cooperation. The challenge ahead for the project partners is to sustain and consolidate the New INDIGO platform by expanding membership, strengthening the innovation dimension and mobilising resources for networking and collaborative transnational research and innovation projects.

FOREWORD

With the signing of the first S&T EU-India agreement in 2001, the collaboration in Science and Technology between India and Europe has gained considerable momentum, with many joint declarations and actions punctuated over the years. Europe and India are now strategic partners in Science, Technology and Innovation. New INDIGO actively supported this policy dialogue by turning political priorities into concrete funding programmes and dynamic cooperation. New INDIGO offered researchers from both Europe and India, the chance to work within multilateral projects, as well as plenty of opportunities for creating new partnerships through dedicated brokerage events during our yearly EU-India STI Cooperation Days. We also provided comprehensive documents about EU and India respective research landscapes and more than 200 funding programmes for scientists on our website! 6

When looking back at the projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history, New INDIGOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most striking success is the mutual trust and understanding it has created between Funding Agencies from Europe and India, thus paving the way for a sustainable framework of joint EU-India multilateral calls. At a rate of one call per year and with more than 28 projects funded (results of the fourth call are still pending) we offered an ever growing number of European and Indian funding organisations the opportunity to pool their resources and fund multilateral networking and research projects. Funding Agencies have learned to work together and establish common rules for submission, evaluation and selection of projects, and this has proved successful even when enlarging the scope of the call and the funding instruments. This successful story will continue with the INNO INDIGO project, which is about to start and is expected to extend to clusters, industries and regions, thus reinforcing the innovation and application oriented aspects of our calls. All this would not have been possible without the strong involvement of all partners in the consortium and we would like to thank them all for their commitment. We are looking forward to continue working together within the INNO INDIGO and INDIGO POLICY projects.

Dr Dominique Aymer de la Chevalerie CNRS, Coordinator

Dr Purnima Rupal CSIR, Co-coordinator

WHAT IS NEW INDIGO?

New INDIGO Partners

National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India International Bureau of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research at the German Aerospace Centre (IB-BMBF at DLR), Germany Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, India Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI), Austria Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), Netherlands Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Portugal Association of Electronics and Information Technology Industries of the Basque Country (GAIA), Spain Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBITAK), Turkey Observers and Steering Committee Members Department of Science and Technology (DST), India Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India Indian Institute of Science (IISc), India Royal Society (RS), UK German Research Foundation (DFG), Germany Research Councils UK (RCUK), UK Academy of Finland (AKA), Finland Ministry of Science and Innovation (MINECO), Spain Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Netherlands National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), France Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation (DASTI), Denmark Research Council of Norway (RCN), Norway Research Organisation – Flanders (FWO), Belgium National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), France Euraxess Links India, India Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MESR), France Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), France Federal Ministry of Science and Research (BMWF), Austria Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany

Project full title: Initiative for the development and integration of Indian and European research Acronym: New INDIGO Research area: INCO-2007-3.1.2 ERA-NET projects Contract type: Coordination and Support Action Grant agreement: 226167 Start date: 01 / 01 / 2009 End date: 31 / 12 / 2013 Duration: 60 months Total cost: € 2,939,614 EU contribution: € 2,498,785 Coordinator organisation: National Centre for Scientific Research, France Co-coordinator organisation: Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India Scientific Co-coordinator: Dominique Aymer de la Chevalerie (dominique.aymer@cnrs-dir.fr) Scientific Co-coordinator: Purnima Rupal (purnima@csir.res.in) Managing Co-coordinator: Marie-Alix Riou (marie-alix.riou@cnrs-dir.fr) New INDIGO website: www.newindigo.eu Objectives New INDIGO is an initiative for the development and the integration of Indian and European research, building an extended web of partnership to pave the way for longterm scientific cooperation between Europe and India. New INDIGO has been working towards the following strategic objectives: Structuring the international dimension of the European Research Area, through the exchange of information, expertise and best practices and the design of common data bases; Supporting the coordination of national programmes through the implementation of a jointly funded scheme: from the Networking Pilot Programme to the New INDIGO Partnership Programme; Creating strategic partnerships with India and supporting the coordination of science and technology policies between Europe and India through an extensive foresight study and concrete recommendations to policy-makers.

1 ENHANCING STI COOPERATION

One of New INDIGO’s main objectives is to enhance scientific cooperation between India and Europe 1 by unlocking the S&T systems of both regions and thereby enabling European researchers, policy-makers and programme owners to access the Indian scientific landscape and vice versa. It does this by promoting funding opportunities for cooperation of scientists and innovators from EU and India, by disclosing regional Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) landscapes as well as by building a network of Focal Points, which provide Indian researchers with information on the European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.

1.1 Promoting cooperation opportunities 1.1.1 … by creating a funding programmes database 12

During New INDIGO’s lifespan, a database has been developed in order to provide all actors, from research up to policy making levels, with information about existing programmes and collaborations in all scientific and technological domains across the European Research Area (ERA) and India. This includes mobility, doctoral, bilateral and other programmes fostering cooperation. The database, which is regularly updated, is user-friendly and allows for cross-referencing.

www.newindigo.eu/object/programme/list

1 In the following publication, the term “Europe” refers to all countries which are part of or associated to the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme.

In addition to the programme database, the New INDIGO website also provides an extensive page with all the appropriate information and links about FP7. www.newindigo.eu/programme/eu_framework.html

1.1.3 … through the website The New INDIGO website acts as a portal for people and organisations from both India and Europe interested in enhancing research cooperation between the two regions.

1.1.2 … by organising events For the last four years, New INDIGO has annually organised the EUIndia Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation Days. This has become a major networking event for India and European scientists and innovators. Each year, the event has featured a different thematic focus: in 2009 it addressed Food, Agriculture, Fisheries, Biotechnologies and Health, in 2011 it was Biotechnology and Health, in 2012 Water Related Challenges and this year it sort to tackle Affordable Health. The conference usually features several different elements which offer ample of opportunities for fostering interactions among Indian and European scientific and innovation communities.

2 The Programme started as New INDIGO Networking Pilot Programme and developed into New INDIGO Partnership Programme – the abbreviation (NPP) remained the same. More information on the development of the programme is to be found in chapter 2: coordination of Euro-Indian funding for research and technology.

During the scientific conference, researchers involved in multilateral projects funded under FP7 or bilateral schemes, as well as researchers funded under the New INDIGO Partnership Programme (NPP) 2 are invited to present their major scientific results and reflect upon their collaboration. As the event aims at promoting collaboration between Europe and India, the floor is always given to one scientist from India and one scientist from Europe to jointly present their project. Parallel to this science conference, scientists and industries are also offered pre-arranged face-to-face meetings during a dedicated brokerage event, called the Networking Café. This session allows for personal and informal discussions about project ideas and many first contacts for further collaboration are made here. The event’s programme also allows the integration of the younger scientific community, which is key when it comes to creating new networks and strengthening the collaboration between Europe and India. With this in mind, the organising committee has included a posters session during which young researchers are offered the opportunity to present their work to the audience. One can also note the evolution in the naming of the event from EUIndia S&T Cooperation Days to EU-India STI Cooperation Days. This is a signal of the will to include a strong innovation dimension in the programme, a tendency which is going to be further enhanced in the future. In Vienna and in Hyderabad, innovators were invited to give a testimony of their successful business collaborations and technology transfers between Europe and India during the technology transfer session.

From the participants themselves, it seems that the goals were met, as many of them stressed that their attendance of the “EU-India STI Cooperation Days was a very profitable experience; allowing for identification of synergies between research activities and triggering new promising scientific collaboration in the future”.

15 www.newindigo.eu/india/life_sciences.html It offers a wide spectrum of information for the interested parties including news and events, funding opportunities and relevant information and documents on both India and Europe. With regard to the information on India, it goes further by providing access to The India Life Science Resource Guide 2010 created by the Indian Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and India Bioscience. Furthermore, the New INDIGO website offers a compilation of project ideas. Scientists have the opportunity to send their project idea to the New INDIGO team. Each idea is then edited, tagged, marked with the project idea owner and displayed in a moving tag cloud on the homepage. In this way, scientists who are interested in Indian-European STI cooperation are able to contact the contributors of ideas that interest them, opening up a possibility of research cooperation. www.newindigo.eu/object/project/list Continuing with this spirit, the website also offers a dedicated page for finding research partners which contains an accumulation of already existing partner-search tools. www.newindigo.eu/programme/partnersearch.html

1.1.4 … through social media In 2012, New INDIGO followed suit in the global trend to include social media channels and in particular Facebook and Twitter to its communication strategy. This move aimed at communicating the opportunities for Indian-European cooperation towards dedicated target groups which are potential enablers of cooperation and multipliers of respective information. As a result, targeted content has been disseminated especially regarding funding opportunities, mobility schemes and initiatives targeting young scientists. Relevant content has been posted not only on New INDIGO’s Facebook and Twitter pages, but also on other relevant pages and groups on both social media channels. The success of this step can be clearly seen by the rising number of “likes” on our Facebook page, “followers” on our Twitter page and the rise in the number of web accesses to our main website as well as the EU-India STI Cooperation Days event pages.

The map displays the public research centres, national research facilities and infrastructure that have been created at these centres, as well as the relevant university-level institutions throughout the country. www.newindigo.eu/india/info/s_and_t_landscape.html The functions of the central government bodies, the ministries, which are responsible for these research centres, are well summarised. 3 In addition, organisations of strategic importance are highlighted. The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), which is also New INDIGO partner and the premier institution in scientific and industrial research with a network of 37 laboratories, 2 cooperative industrial research institutions and more than 100 extensions and field centres, is also featured.

Besides regular posts, particular awareness raising campaigns were implemented by the use of social media. Alongside the 3rd EU-India STI Cooperation Days, which focussed on water-related research, New INDIGO ran a Twitter campaign aimed at raising awareness about these globally important issues.

Principal Scientific Advisor

Council of Ministers

Planning Commission

3 Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Science and Technology, Department of Space, Department of Atomic Energy, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Ministry of nonConventional Energy Sources and Ministry of Water Resources

Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister

Prime Minister

17 Ministry of HRD

Ministry of Environment and Forest

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

Indian Council of Forestry Research and Development

Indian Council of Medical Research

Forest Research Institutes

Medical Research Institutes

Ministry of Communication and Information Technology

Ministry of Science and Technology

Ministry of Defence

Ministry of Earth Sciences

Ministry of Agriculture

UGC

AICTE

IITs

Department of Space

DSIR DRDO

DBT

Department of Information Technology

DST

ICAR

CSIR

DAE ISRO

IIS’c

Connect with us on social media: “Like” us on Facebook: facebook.com/FP7NewINDIGO “Follow” us on Twitter: twitter.com/NewINDIGO

1.2 Providing information on the Indian and the European STI landscape New INDIGO offers information on the Indian S&T policies and structure by providing the Indian S&T landscape on its website. In this landscape, researchers can find the major players in the Indian S&T structure with a good overview of important governmental and nongovernmental S&T stakeholders.

Universities

DRDO Research Institutes

DBT Aided Institute

DST Aided Research Institutes

CSIR Research Institutes

DIT Institutes

Figure 1: Major players of the Indian S&T system

1.3 Building the Indian Focal Point Network Taking stock that the problems we face are global by nature and that there is an increasing need for tackling them together, the EC has opened its Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (PCRD) to the participation of researchers from outside Europe. The participation of organisations from third countries has been strongly encouraged under FP7. Similarly, international cooperation is an important cross-cutting priority for the upcoming EU programme for research innovation, Horizon 2020.

Earth Sciences Research Institutes

ICAR Research Institute

ISRO Institute

DAE Institutes

In order to strengthen the participation of researchers from outside Europe, the EC has encouraged the appointment of National Contact Points (NCP) in non-EU countries. The type and level of services offered by the NCPs differ from country to country, but the following basic services are typically available: General Framework Programme guidance Advice on administrative procedures and contractual issues Training and assistance on proposal writing Distribution of documentation (forms, guidelines, manual, etc.) Assistance in partner search Preparation of brokerage events Up to now, there are two formally appointed NCPs in India; both on ICT. Additional NCPs or NCPs in other thematic areas do not exist in the country yet. As a result, in their coordinated efforts to reinforce the participation of Indian scientists in FP7 and Horizon 2020 projects, the EU-India networks, EUINEC and New INDIGO, have established an informal support network in India. The members of this informal network are researchers from major Indian universities and research institutes, with former experience in FP6/7 projects. These researchers have thus been dubbed the Focal Points. To date, 15 Indian scientists are part of this network.

The Focal Points receive annual training on FP7 rules and principles. They are multipliers able to provide first hand assistance to their research communities wishing to cooperate with European scientists. Their role is to spread information about EU calls for proposals and provide dedicated support in the course of the duration of an FP7 project life: from the identification of funding opportunities, drafting of a proposal, follow-up of the submission and negotiation phases, to the assistance in project implementation and reporting. They can give general advice on legal, administrative and budgetary issues as well as supporting their fellow scientists in their search for European partners. The network is tailored into the Indian context and covers a wide number of Indian states and a whole range of thematic areas. From 2014 to 2016, the Focal Points will continue to offer their services to the Indian researchers, with the support of the INDIGO POLICY project, which takes over this specific activity from New INDIGO.

A network offering dedicated support to Indian researchers wishing to take part in projects funded under the EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development.

Health Bikaner

Mr Arunabha Ghosh ICT, India-FP7 National Contact Point New Delhi

Health

Mr Rajneesh Agrawal ICT, India-FP7 National Contact Point New Delhi

Energy

Environment Energy ICT ICT

SSH Varanasi NMP Kharagpur Environment Mumbai

KBBE Goa ICT Bangalore

NMP Chennai

Biotechnology Thiruvananthapuram

Figure 2: Indian focal points

1.4 Initiating a platform of representatives of European STI organisations in India With India becoming a major player in research and innovation, several European research organisations, universities and initiatives have established representation offices in India with the objective of strengthen their partnerships in the country. Since 2013, New INDIGO has supported the setup of a platform for these representatives of European STI organisations in India, the socalled STI Platform, to structure their network, enable information, knowledge and experiences sharing, as well as strengthen their visibility vis-à-vis Indian partners. More than twenty European research organisations, universities and initiatives have eagerly embarked in the first year of the platform’s activities and have high expectations to scale up their activities in the future. They also plan to open up to new partners especially from the private sector. All STI Platform members believe that they can gain considerably through joining their forces and coordinating their actions. They have agreed to carry out joint activities, such as sharing notes and expertise or launching joint studies. They will also constitute regular working groups on thematic fields of common interest, thus capitalising on knowledge and saving efforts in a vast country like India.

Furthermore, the platform increases the visibility of its member’s vis-à-vis their Indian partners. The organisation of the EU-India STI Forum, the platform’s joint annual event which was held for the first time in Delhi in September 2013, is supposed to be one among many tools to achieve this goal. It was considered a tremendous opportunity to actively build the Indo-European Research and Innovation Partnership that policy-makers have been calling for. Stakeholders from Europe and India, ranging from the scientific, innovation and business communities, were invited to discuss and share good practices on topics of mutual interest. For the first edition of the Forum in 2013, the participants discussed the latest developments of PublicPrivate Partnership; a key policy issue for both regions.

www.newindigo.eu/programme/eu_sti_india.html In 2014, the STI Platform will continue its many activities under the umbrella of the INDIGO POLICY project. 4

4 The latter is one of the New INDIGO follow-up projects, dedicated to support the EU-India STI policy-dialogue. It is going to have its kick-off in December 2013 and is being funded by the EC.

Participation of Indian Scientists in the Seventh Framework Programme In FP7, Indian scientists received automatic funding. With a participation in 159 FP7 projects, India ranked fourth in the list of third country participation in FP7, behind Russia, USA and China.

The STI Platform also offers Indian representatives involved in EUIndia bilateral cooperation the opportunity to address their counterparts in a single forum. Non-Platform members also benefit from the platform’s services (see below: “Services offered by the STI Platform”). Indeed, its ambition is to serve as a gateway for industries and public organisations trying to settle in India or start scientific cooperation with the country. The platform will offer on-site support to European organisations wishing to establish or open up a liaison office in India. To serve this purpose and to enable their easy identification, the members have shared their contact details on the New INDIGO dedicated webpage.

5 %

4 %

3 %

2 %

Services offered by the STI Platform Discover the many dedicated services the STI-Platform offers scientists, European research organisations, industries, universities and our Indian partners! Services to Platform members Information sharing and capitalisation of knowledge and experiences between the members Accession to other research organisations’ activities and results Cooperation in the organisation of official visits Launching joint studies (with experts involvement) on topics of common interest Services to other European organisations On-site support for European organisations through a liaison office in India Access to the Platform’s outputs (minutes of the events, joint studies …)

1 %

0 % a

a Health b Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Biotechnology c ICT d Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and New Production Technologies e Energy f Environment (incl. Climate Change) g Transports (incl. Aeronautics) h Socio-economic Sciences and the Humanities i Space

j Young Researchers (ERC Starting Grants) k Intial Training Network – Réseaux Marie Curie l Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways (IAPP) – Marie Curie Actions m International Outgoing Fellowships for Career Development (IOF) – Marie Curie Actions n Research Infrastructure (INFRA) o Science in Society (SIS) p International Cooperation (INCO) q Nuclear Fission and Radiation Protection (Fission)

Figure 3: Percentage of Indian participation in FP7 projects

Services to Indian organisations Creation of an Indo-European forum to discuss topics of common interest and share experiences and good practices Easier access to the European network to start or enhance existing collaborations Services to researchers Organisation of dedicated events where researchers can meet policy-makers on issues of common interest Easy identification of European organisations with a liaison office in India.

In Horizon 2020 general calls for collaborative projects, Indian scientists will not be automatically funded by the EC as was the case in FP7. However, they are still able to be members of the selected consortia and participate with other sources of funding or under specific conditions, with EU funding. In addition, Indian researchers can receive funding for participating in mobility projects under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Program, and the European Research Council (ERC) programme.

2 COORDINATION OF INDO-EUROPEAN FUNDING FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY

The establishment of a programme which funds multilateral research and networking projects is one of the major pillars of New INDIGO. The funding scheme has proven to be an important step towards further development and integration of the Indian and European research areas. It has been set up against the background that - despite the existing fruitful and longstanding scientific cooperation between India and certain European countries – there is little multilateral S&T cooperation between the two regions. The New INDIGO Networking Pilot Programme, which was later converted into the New INDIGO Partnership Programme (both abbreviated NPP), was able to fill this gap for the last five years. Additionally, by bringing together Indian and European researchers and innovators to work together on topics of mutual interest, the NPP has paved the way for high quality collaborative research. The following sections describe this NPP in detail: Besides illustrating the development, implementation and the general rules and principles of this funding scheme, participation patterns of the four NPP calls that have been published are explicated, as well as some results from the first call of NPP.

2.1 New INDIGO calls: General principles and rules 2.1.1 From Networking Pilot Programme to Partnership Programme The funding schemes established under New INDIGO have evolved from networking projects to collaborative research projects. Whereas the networking projects under the New INDIGO Networking Pilot Programme were created to foster the networking of researchers through mobility and workshops, the collaborative projects under the New INDIGO Partnership Programme aimed at providing transnational research projects. There have been four calls so far: the first two calls funded networking projects under the Networking Pilot Programme while the latter two funded research projects under the Partnership Programme.

96 % of the evaluators involved in NPP2 and NPP3 reckoned “that the research undertaken by the successful applicants will help to develop their respective research field”

100 % of all involved researchers agreed that their overall experience of the first New INDIGO call was the main factor influencing the decision to submit again.

5 However, the number of participating companies is still rather low. Hence, the next important step should be to analyse market needs of both India and Europe, in order to publish tailor made programmes attracting their research and industries.

Through the implementation of joint calls, New INDIGO has fostered a network with the most important Indian funding bodies: the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The mechanisms implemented to launch and manage joint research funding proved to be applicable even with changing thematic scopes, budgets and funding instruments. The success of New INDIGO is also indicated by the fact that a rising number of European funding organisations have been attracted to participate in the joint calls. In conclusion, by various approaches of joint funding, it has been examined and proved that EU-India funding mechanisms are technically feasible, attractive, and add value to scientific results and scientific collaboration. Realising that innovation is firstly the engine for growth, and employment and competitiveness are secondly the driving forces for tackling global challenges, New INDIGO has started to open doors for the involvement of industry into joint scientific projects. 5

Regain mobility in a stroke! /

OPTOSIS Portable Optical Brain-Computer-Interface and Orthosis for Movement Restoration after Stroke

Making waste water potable / AQUATEST Advanced microbial QUAlity monitoring and hygienization TEchniques for Secure water Trading

Second hand water?! /

2.1.2 Tackling social challenges

REOPTIMA

NPP aims to provide relevant members of the Indian and European scientific communities with possibilities for networking and exchange, thus reinforcing EU-India cooperation in thematic areas of mutual interest. The NPP has paved the way for sustainable cooperation between research institutions from the ERA and the Indian partner organisations through enhancing bi-regional communication and cooperation, increasing networking, developing new partnerships and strengthening existing ones, as well as exchanging knowledge and best practices approaches.

Reuse options for marginal quality water in urban and peri-urban agriculture and allied services in the gambit of WHO guidelines

In order to reach these goals, the NPP has developed harmonised financial and administrative tools as well as an efficient evaluation and monitoring process for future joint activities and identified research areas of mutual interest. Global challenges are important research topics for both Europe and India. Whereas they can only be solved through an international approach, they are best addressed in multilateral research projects.

6 www.newindigo.eu/attach/JointConference ChairpersonsStatementDelhiNov2010.pdf

COOPERATION / STORIES

The thematic area for the first call of the NPP was narrowed down to Biotechnology and Health due to biotechnology’s high impact on society, agriculture, health, economic development and innovation as well as because of the major interest in biotechnology related research shared by Europe and India. Besides biotechnology, solutions for water and bio-resources related challenges are a prioritised topic 6 for India as well as the EU. As a result, this research focus was chosen for the second call of the NPP. Due to the fact that water related topics have a large bandwidth and are in parts extensively covered and funded – either in bilateral programmes or through the European Framework Programme –, it was decided to restrict the broad, superordinate research area to two specified topics: Wastewater Management (including Applications to Industry, Agriculture and Green Chemistry) and Water Purification. These first two calls intended to strengthen networks and to bring researchers from the two regions together.

Purely green / Greentech The application of green technologies for sustainable water purification and reuse

Cross-border germs / SAP Elucidating the pathogenesis of staphylococcal diseases by studying virulence factors of Indian Community Associated Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Flagging the Forgetting / Alzbioindigo Accelerating the development of New Molecular Bio Markers for Alzheimer’s Disease

An early warning system for vascular damage / Nitroxdiab Post-translational modifications induced by nitroxidative stress as biomarkers of vascular damage in diabetes

Parasites that change like the weather /

Allergens: by-products of Climate Change /

PARA-CLIM-CHANDIGARH

GENALL

Intestinal parasites in Northern India – effects of climate patterns on prevalence of different intestinal parasites in children and on occurrence in water and fresh produce as vehicles of transmission

Genetically engineered allergens for component-resolved diagnosis and immunotherapy of airway allergies

Water management – analysing best practices / SHUSHUK

28 EU-Indian projects funded Tissue regeneration /

under the New INDIGO Partnership Programme until September 2013 SiChroCaR

Integrated Wastewater management through Hydrological Modelling of River Basins in India and Europe

Already more than …

Signaling meets chromatin in cancer and regeneration

Low cost renovation /

From grey to green /

REWATER

Green-tech

Low-cost recovery of reclaimed water from sewage… mixed 602industrial days of visits effluents for meetings, joint laboratory work, staff exchange, workshops

Howof to more improvethan the sustainability of wastewater and drinking water … with a funding volume € 6,400,000

Know the code /

… and 13 countries involved The ideal waste water treatment plant /

TRICONT

… 120 research institutions involved

treatment

AtWat

Target specific small molecules to control infections due to Trypanosomatids

Advanced modelling, control and decision support tools for flexible and optimal waste water treatment plant

through participation in the research process, trainings, workshops, webinars Hyperactive /

The coated heart /

CML-Standardization

heartSEN

Standardisation of response assessment in chronic leukaemia … 58 articles ormyeloid posters published

Surface Engineered Coatings on Mechanical Heart Valves: Diagnostics of Thrombosis

Chikungunya – fighting a re-emerging enemy /

Interrupting Malaria’s Supply Chain /

Anti-CHIK

plasfalsyn

… 59 young scientists involved

Structure-based discovery of antivirals for the treatment of Chikungunya virus infections

August featured story: Wasted? /

NanoLINEN /

PLANTY A project aiming at establishing strong scientific links between EU and India in nanotoxicology

Allergens: by-products of Climate Change /

Detection of Cancer 2.0! /

Regain mobility in a stroke! /

Parasites that change like the weather /

GENALL

HCV Project

OPTOSIS

PARA-CLIM-CHANDIGARH

Genetically engineered allergens for component-resolved diagnosis and immunotherapy of airway allergies

An attractive and promising strategy for early cancer diagnosis through the assembly of the Human Cancer Volatomics

Portable Optical Brain-Computer-Interface and Orthosis for Movement Restoration after Stroke

Tissue regeneration /

The curable global pandemic /

Making waste water potable /

Water management – analysing best practices /

SiChroCaR

TBomics

AQUATEST

SHUSHUK

Signaling meets chromatin in cancer and regeneration

Looking for more effective diagnostics in Tuberculosis

Advanced microbial QUAlity monitoring and hygienization TEchniques for Secure water Trading

Integrated Wastewater management through Hydrological Modelling of River Basins in India and Europe

From grey to green /

Anti Aging for membranes /

Second hand water?! /

Low cost renovation /

Green-tech

HMBSP

REOPTIMA

REWATER

How to improve the sustainability of wastewater and drinking water treatment

Application of hybrid membrane based separation processes for treatment of industrial wastewater

Reuse options for marginal quality water in urban and peri-urban agriculture and allied services in the gambit of WHO guidelines

Low-cost recovery of reclaimed water from sewage mixed industrial effluents

The ideal waste water treatment plant /

Breaking pollutants with enzymes /

Purely green /

Know the code /

AtWat

EnMBR

Greentech

TRICONT

Advanced modelling, control and decision support tools for flexible and optimal waste water treatment plant

Enzyme supplemented membrane bioreactor (EnMBR) for degradation of recalcitrant compounds in industrial wastewater

The application of green technologies for sustainable water purification and reuse

Target specific small molecules to control infections due to Trypanosomatids

The coated heart /

All about potato /

Cross-border germs /

Hyperactive /

heartSEN

PotBIO

SAP

CML-Standardization

Surface Engineered Coatings on Mechanical Heart Valves: Diagnostics of Thrombosis

Generating Biomarkers for breeding healthy potatoes

Elucidating the pathogenesis of staphylococcal diseases by studying virulence factors of Indian Community Associated Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Standardisation of response assessment in chronic myeloid leukaemia

Interrupting Malaria’s Supply Chain /

Tracing mutated stromal cells /

Flagging the Forgetting /

Chikungunya – fighting a re-emerging enemy /

plasfalsyn

GASB

Alzbioindigo

Anti-CHIK

Identification of Genetic Alterations in the Stromal Cells Associated with Breast Cancer

Accelerating the development of New Molecular Bio Markers for Alzheimer’s Disease

Structure-based discovery of antivirals for the treatment of Chikungunya virus infections

Featured Story: The digital Petri dish /

An early warning system for vascular damage /

August featured story: Wasted? /

MTBSS

Nitroxdiab

PLANTY

NanoLINEN / A project aiming at establishing strong scientific links between EU and India in nanotoxicology

Post-translational modifications induced by nitroxidative stress as biomarkers of vascular damage in diabetes

Detection of Cancer 2.0! / HCV Project An attractive and promising strategy for early cancer diagnosis through the assembly of the Human Cancer Volatomics

The curable global pandemic / TBomics

Within the third joint call for proposals, larger funding was provided in order to facilitate not “only” networking of researchers but actual joint research. This third call chose a similar topic to the first call. Recognising the fact that Biotechnology is one of India’s research strengths, while Health is a field of rising importance both in India and Europe, the theme for this NPP call was chosen to be Biotechnology applied to Human Health. For the fourth call, Energy was chosen as the main topic due to the fact that energy research is a field of rising importance in both India and Europe. Smart Energy Grids and New Energy Material were the chosen subthemes. The fourth call also availed larger funding. The last two calls, unlike the first two calls, were open to business stakeholders.

Looking for more effective diagnostics in Tuberculosis

Anti Aging for membranes / HMBSP Application of hybrid membrane based separation processes for treatment of industrial wastewater

Breaking pollutants with enzymes / EnMBR Enzyme supplemented membrane bioreactor (EnMBR) for degradation of recalcitrant compounds in industrial wastewater

All about potato /

FUNDING PROCEDURES The implementation of NPP is realised via a “Virtual Common Pot” (VCP). The VCP follows the “juste retour” principle by which national funds are exclusively assigned to participants of the respective country. EVALUATION PROCEDURE After the eligibility check, each proposal is reviewed and scored by two external evaluators; one from India and one from the EU. Based on the score given and written remarks, a Scientific Council is tasked with formulating recommendations for funding to the Funding Committee. FUNDING CATEGORIES For networking projects, funding could be applied for the following items: mobility; workshops; other costs. For collaborative research projects, funding could be applied for: mobility, workshops, equipment, consumables and personnel costs. Details and amounts of eligible costs have to match national rules and regulations. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA Eligibility is subject to national regulations. In general, applications can be submitted by public and / or private Research and Technology Development (RTD) entities as well as Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), where the latter only applied to the third and fourth calls.

PotBIO Generating Biomarkers for breeding healthy potatoes

2.1.3 Experiences with New INDIGO Joint Calls – Interview with New INDIGO’s call secretariat

Tracing mutated stromal cells /

While only one call was scheduled at the beginning of the New INDIGO project, you have succeeded in successfully launching 4 calls. Can you explain this progress?

GASB Identification of Genetic Alterations in the Stromal Cells Associated with Breast Cancer

Featured Story: The digital Petri dish / MTBSS

… and there’s more to come!

New INDIGO call secretariat: Obviously we succeeded in creating the conditions for mutual trust between the consortium members and funding agencies. When we launched our second New INDIGO call in 2011, we had a new funding partner on the Indian side (the Indian Department of Science and Technology) and two new funding partners from the European side. This became a trend for all the calls we launched. It is a very good signal of the growing interest in EU-India S&T cooperation indicating the need for a multilateral scheme. Today, these successes enable us to positively envisage the implementation of a “sustainable Programme for EU-India joint Calls”, while tackling new challenges such as the integration of the private sector.

92 % of all involved researchers agreed with the statement “I / we are more likely to collaborate across national borders with our counterparts in Europe / India in the future as a result of our experience with New INDIGO.”

Academy of Finland (AKA), Hannele Lahtinen, Science Adviser “In cooperation with Indian funding organisations, the Academy of Finland (AKA) funds Finnish and Indian research projects and supports mobility among researchers. In addition to this bilateral cooperation, AKA considers it important to take part in European networks working with India. New INDIGO has been a good example of this: It has enabled the formation of wider and more attractive consortia between scientists as well as research funding agencies. New INDIGO has also provided a channel to learn more about Indian policy and practice. It is anticipated that the transnational calls will continue in the future within INNO INDIGO, to make the cooperation between the best scientists from Europe and India in the priority research areas possible.”

What is needed for a call to be successfully implemented? New INDIGO call secretariat: The challenges of implementing a transnational call involving countries outside Europe might differ from the calls implemented through thematic ERA-NETS. It starts with the selection of thematic areas. The third country focus within certain research fields might differ considerably from the European focus. Hence, scientific excellence as well as innovativeness of project proposals might be regarded differently. Furthermore, the transnational schemes also address European funding organisations that have few existing or no bilateral schemes with the respective third country. For a successful implementation, a call needs to be carefully prepared and a common understanding of the objectives is required. The selection of a thematic area, addressing a joint identified challenge and the agreement on the general principles and rules through the adoption of a strategy document are the first steps in the preparation process. Another important task is the preparation of a coherent timeline by the call secretariat which brings together the different national timelines. Of course, regular and transparent communication during all steps of the call is of foremost importance, as well as the strong involvement of the call secretariat, the coordinator and all National Contact Points. How do you support scientists during the application phase?

36 7 To be acknowledged as a multilateral project, applying consortia have to include at least one Indian and two European partners

8 National contact person to deliver information particularly to NPP applicants, address list to be found on the New INDIGO website www.newindigo.eu/npp/ncps.html

New INDIGO call secretariat: When preparing a call, we strive to establish easy requirements for scientists to follow while at the same time offering them the largest possible range of funding instruments. This means apart from the 2 + 1 criteria 7, each scientific team also has to follow its respective national eligibility rules. Additionally it has to be easy for them to obtain the basic information they need to put together an application, such as the eligibility criteria, the evaluation criteria and the timeline of the call. On a daily basis, the scientists are supported by the NPP National Contact Points 8 which provide dedicated support to them through phone and emails. How do you secure the scientific excellence of the projects?

The Research Council of Norway (RCN), Jon Heikki Aas, Senior Adviser, INDNOR Programme Coordinator, Division for Society and Health “All programmes managed by the Research Council of Norway are required to enhance their international dimension. Specifically for India, New INDIGO provides a very useful network of colleagues, as well as an efficient mechanism for management of calls and for dialogue with Indian authorities. The Research Council of Norway has participated in two calls so far and will consider participating in further calls, in as far as they meet the priorities of our India programme.”

New INDIGO call secretariat: Being strongly supported by the National Contact Points, we carefully select the evaluators of the proposals (at least two independent evaluators for each proposal) and the Scientific Council Members. Based on the scores given by the evaluators, the Scientific Council Members discuss each proposal and develop the final scientific ranking cooperatively. Additionally, we try to reach a critical part of the research community in order to raise the competition. In our evaluation system, the criterion of scientific excellence of the project is the most prevalent one. Nevertheless, there are further important issues in transnational cooperation. Beyond the scientific excellence, peer-reviewers and the scientific members are also asked to evaluate the projects against the criteria of trans-nationality and cooperation which gauges the added-value of the transnational collaboration for the projects, as well as the balanced

and comprehensive distribution of tasks within the consortium. The third criterion for evaluation are the potential impacts and expected outcomes of the project. With so many funding organisations on board, how do you reach a consensus on the funding decision? New INDIGO call secretariat: The common understanding of the transnational requirement of an ERA-NET scheme, by which the foremost aim is to fund the largest possible number of highest ranked proposals. The funding decision is based on the ranking of the Scientific Council and the available budget. The role of the Scientific Council is very important here. They have to deliver an enhanced and transparent scientific ranking. In short: Would you say that the New INDIGO calls have fostered cooperation between Europe and India?

Department of Sciences and Technology (DST), Arvind Kumar, Principal Scientific Officer – International Cooperation division

New INDIGO call secretariat: The external evaluation showed that, as a result of their experience in New INDIGO, researchers are more likely to collaborate across national borders with their counterparts in Europe and India in the future. The report also shows that New INDIGO not only contributed by providing funding for further collaboration to existing networks, but also contributed to creating new networks of researchers. I think that the New INDIGO calls have indeed fostered the cooperation between Europe and India.

“DST embarked in two calls within the IndiaEU / M S New INDIGO Partnership Programme to provide opportunities for networking of Indian and European scientists; to work together to address the common challenges in the Water and Energy sectors and at the same time build scientific excellence in the respective research fields and enhance the competiveness of Indian and European SMEs. New INDIGO worked on the principle of the variable geometry approach for co-investment of resources and codevelopment of knowledge, products and services. DST favourably supports such frameworks and may continue as a partner in future cooperation.”

2.2 New INDIGO calls: Results 2.2.1 Participation patterns Six to seven countries have participated in each call with India. Some of them only once, like Israel and some of them in every call (besides India, France and Germany). Not all of them were members of the New INDIGO project consortium, and not all of the funding agencies which are also partners of New INDIGO participated in every call (see Table 1). Call

Year

NPP1

2010

NPP2

2011

NPP3

2012

NPP4

2013

Table 1: Countries participating in New INDIGO calls

All in all, New INDIGO funded 28 projects (excluding those which will be funded through the 4th call: funding decision is expected in November 2013). The first three calls had a total investment of 6.4 Million Euros from the European and Indian funding agencies (see Table 2). As described in Table 2 below, the total number of eligible

proposals submitted in each call varied depending on thematic area and the type of instrument used (either a networking or research project call). The total investment by funding agencies increased in the third NPP call (NPP3) due to the type of instrument used: funding of collaborative research projects with longer duration (up to three years).

25 CALL STATISTICS

NPP1

Total No. of submitted pre-proposals

Total No. of submitted eligible proposals

Total No. of funded projects

NPP2

NPP3

Total

116

100

Scientific success ratio

28 %

38 %

21 %

28 %

Total investment in each call by all funders

1,878,900 €

1,226,705 €

3,299,882 €

6,405,487 €

NPP3

Table 2: New INDIGO call statistics

The first NPP call (NPP1) was launched on the 11th of January 2010. After the pre-registration phase between the 8th of March and the 19th of April 2010, a total of 47 proposals were submitted. After the evaluation process, 13 projects were finally funded, networking 70 scientists of nearly 60 organisations (e.g. universities, research centres). Researchers from over 10 countries participated in this first call: Austria, France, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom. 38 Launched on the 18th of April 2011, the second NPP call (NPP2) funded 9 projects out of 24 project proposals, which had to be submitted by the 7th of September 2011. Researchers from Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Netherlands, Spain and India were involved in these 9 projects. For the NPP3, launched on the 17th of October 2011, 29 project proposals were submitted until the call deadline on the 2nd of May 2012. In the end 6 projects were funded, in which researchers from Austria, France, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and India participated. The fourth NPP call (NPP4) was launched on the 8th May 2013 and the proposal submission phase ended on the 23rd of August 2013. The projects will start after the funding decision in November 2013. Participating countries in this call are Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Turkey and India. The 28 scientific projects, which have been funded through the New INDIGO multilateral calls until now, involve 112 research organisations, 77 from Europe and 35 from India. In terms of organisations per country, India has the highest number of S&T organisations in NPP projects since this country has participated in every single project. From the European side, Spain and Germany participated in the three calls with the highest number of organisations involved, followed by France and Portugal (see Figure 4).

NPP2 NPP1

0 AT

Figure 4: Number of organisations funded by country per NPP call

2.2.2 Some results: A glance into NPP1 As only NPP1 is completed and all the other calls are still running, a look at the results of funded projects is only reasonable for NPP1 projects. The main aim of this first NPP call was to initiate networks in the field of Structural Biology, Bioinformatics and Biomarkers between EU and Indian researchers. To measure the quality or intensity of these networks bibliometric methods can be used. With bibliometrics, profiles of these networks and the actors involved in the first NPP call have been created and analysed. On this basis, it can be assessed whether the New INDIGO NPP managed to mobilise actors of high scientific standing and whether the cooperation facilitated is new (or had existed before the NPP was launched). Figure 5 provides an overview of researcher profiles; sorted according to the country where their research institution is located. At a glance it is possible to see how many publications of NPP1 researchers are listed in Web of Science 9 database and the number of their respective h-index 10. The average h-index of the most senior European and Indian scientists involved in each project is 29. This is at the upper level of the average of around 20 – 30 that is reported for senior scientists in the thematic field related to NPP 11. These results show that the first call within the NPP has attracted scientists and research groups that tend to work on a high publication output and impact level. Even considering the traditionally higher number of publications and citations in medicine-related areas (compared to other fields in the sciences), many of the scientists involved on both the Indian and European side feature high numbers in the available output indicators.

9 Note, that not all of one’s publications are necessarily listed in the Web of Science database. 10 The h-index measures research(er) performance by taking the numbers of published papers of the researcher and the citations these publications got over the years into account. It is a widely used bibliometric indicator, but there are some known problems e.g. that the hindex does not consider systematic differences in citation and publication behaviour. 11 Cf Iglesias, J./Pecharromán (2007): Scaling the h-index for different scientific ISI fields. Scientometrics, 73 (3), 303– 320, also available at http://arxiv.org/ftp/ physics/papers/0607/0607224.pdf; El Emam, K./Arbuckle, L./Jonker, E./Anderson, K. (2012): Two h-Index Benchmarks for Evaluating the Publication Performance of Medical Informatics Researchers. Journal of Medical Internet Research 14(5), e144, also available at http://www.jmir.org/2012/5/ e144/; http://www.biochemia-medica.com/ content/h-index-new-scientometric-indicator

900 60 800 50

700 600

500 30

400 300

200 10 100 h-index 0

0 AT

Figure 5: Publications and H-Index of all researchers involved in NPP1 (sorted per country)

(Source: Web of Science 2012)

For NPP, not only the classic bibliometric output measures are of relevance but also indicators that show the networking impact. Looking at the networks of the researchers involved in NPP1, we see that roughly half of them have worked with over 150 co-authors. Interestingly, publishing with Indian co-authors is still not a widespread phenomenon among the European partners involved, however the Indian scientists have worked more frequently with European researchers.

Figure 6 and Figure 7 show two exemplary co-publication networks of two different NPP1 projects. In Figure 6 there existed no co-publication-links visible in Web of Science database between the European and Indian researchers before the start of their NPP1 project. Only the two Indian researchers had co-authored three publications together, but there were no co-publication links with the European researchers. During and after the NPP1 project several new co-publications were formed – mainly between the two German and the two Indian researchers respectively, but also two publications between the two German researchers and one of the Indian researchers have jointly been published. In this project (mutual) citation is not common – only two references could be detected.

Cooperation between researchers is easily visible in their joint copublications, but this is not the only possible marker of cooperation. Joint workshops, field trips and study visits are only a few indicators for cooperation that occur generally more frequently than co-publications. Therefore, it is particularly striking that among the NPP1 projects, in nearly all projects at least two researchers in each team published at least one joint publication together (although those joint publications are frequently between researchers situated either only in Europe or only in India). It is remarkable that in nine of the thirteen NPP1 projects, no co-authorship links had existed between the Indian and European partners prior to the start of the projects. In four of the projects, the Indian and European scientists involved had already published together before 2010.

TR (1)

(1)

(5) (1)

IN (2)

(2)

(1)

12 Three projects have co-publications between at least one European and one Indian researcher only after project start, one project has European-Indian co-authored publications only before project start and two projects did publish co-authored work before and after project start.

With the first results of the projects only becoming visible recently (more is expected to come), it can be observed that in five of the thirteen projects, India-Europe co-authored work has already been published after the project start (2010 or later). In three cases, the co-authorship links are entirely new, in two cases authors who had earlier collaborated have co-published again 12. Patterns in co-citation behaviour are similar.

(3)

(6)

IN Figure 6: Co-publication pattern in an NPP1 project (Source: Web of Science 2013)

publications

Figure 7 shows a research group, which was well connected before the NPP1 call. There was one co-publication between one Indian and the two Portuguese researchers, one which involved one Portuguese and the Spanish researcher and several between the two Portuguese researchers. The cooperation of the two Indian scientists before the NPP1 call is only visible in one listed joint publication in Web of Science. During and after the project, they were involved in two other publications together, whereby only one of them is also connected with the European researchers (in this case: the Portuguese researcher). Interestingly enough, there are no co-publication or citation links between the sixth project member, the Italian researcher, and the other project partners visible in Web of Science.

3 SUPPORTING SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION POLICY COOPERATION

(1)

(9)

(2) (21)

(9)

(6) (1)

(2)

(1) (1)

(2)

(1)

IN IT Figure 7: Co-publication pattern in an NPP1 project (Source: Web of Science 2013)

All project abstracts and consortia are available on the New INDIGO cooperation stories website: stories.newindigo.eu

Stylised facts about NPP1 The scientists involved in the 13 NPP1 projects have published more than 8,000 publications together, which were cited more than 180,000 times. In each project, the scientists involved published an average of more than 670 publications. The average combined h-index of each of the projects is 54. The range of the number of publications per scientist involved is 2 to 949. The range of the h-indices of the scientists involved is 1 to 67.

3 SUPPORTING SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION POLICY COOPERATION Cooperation in STI policy between Europe and India picked up momentum after the signing of the European Community-India Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement on the 23rd of November 2001. The agreement recognises the key role of STI-cooperation for creating knowledge-based synergies while pursuing sustainable development in both regions. The statement was renewed in the New Delhi Communiqué and extended by the India-EU Joint Statement in 2007, which speaks in favor of strengthened partnership initiatives such as joint projects with co-investment of resources in selected fields of mutual priority. 13

Leaders from both regions already recognised the importance of a more coordinated Europe-India cooperation not only in research but also in innovation at the December 2010 EU-India Summit. The Summit “welcomed the new dynamic of India-EU and Member States research and innovation partnership for more coordinated cooperation to tackle major societal challenges. The leaders agreed that cooperation partnership dialogues should be pursued so as to make a contribution to the objectives set out in the India’s Decade of Innovation and the Europe 2010 Flagship Initiative Innovation Union initiatives.” 14 The EC’s Strategic Forum for International Science and Technology Cooperation (SFIC), formed by high level representatives from the EU Member States and from the EC, identified India as the first partner country with which to initiate a pilot initiative – the Indian Pilot Initiative (IPI) – in 2010. While the group initially focused on “water and bio-resources related challenges” 15, discussions included the broader picture of STI cooperation from the very start and also soon widened its scope to other thematic fields. Recently, IPI 16 has actively engaged in fostering strategic cooperation across the thematic domains of Environment / Water, Energy and Health. The development of a European-Indian Joint Declaration on Re search and Innovation Cooperation started in 2010 and was signed at the EU-India Summit of February 2012. The declaration called for “Moving up a gear in our cooperation towards building an ‘IndoEuropean Research and Innovation Partnership’ with (i) larger scale, scope and impact, (ii) focus on common societal challenges, and (iii) enhanced synergies between India, the EU and its Member States”. 17

13 All background documents as well as more detailed information of development and state of play of EU-India STI policy cooperation can be found on the European Commission’s International Cooperation Portal; http://ec.europa.eu/research/iscp/ index.cfm?lg=en&pg=india (as accessed on 22.7.2013)

14 http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_ MEMO-10-670_en.htm (as accessed on 22.7.2013)

15 Concept note on EU/MS-India Pilot Initiative of April 2010, endorsed by SFIC on 28 April 2010. http://ec.europa.eu/research/era/docs/ en/india-pilot-initiative-concept-note.pdf (as accessed on 22.7.2013)

16 The official SFIC IPI will end in 2013. The Group of Senior Official (GSO) working group will continue to support the policy-dialogue.

17 http://ec.europa.eu/research/iscp/pdf/india_ declaration.pdf (as accessed on 22.7.2013)

New INDIGO’s involvement in milestones of the Indian-European STI cooperation policy dialogue 2009 First EU-India S&T Cooperation Days, New Delhi, 4 – 6 November 2009 with thematic focus on Food, Agriculture, Fisheries; Biotechnology & Health 2010 India-EU and Member States Partnership for a Strategic Roadmap in Research and Innovation, Conference, New Delhi, 11 – 12 November 2010 2011 Second EU-India S&T Cooperation Days, Vienna, 1 – 2 December 2011 with thematic focus Biotechnology and Health (New INDIGO organised back to back SFIC IPI meeting with DBT, involvement of programme owners, policy makers and researchers in the New INDIGO Foresight Process, meeting of DBT with thematic ERA-NET Eurotransbio) 2012 Presentation of Strategic Roadmap (including input from New INDIGO partners) India-European Union / Member States Conference, The Indo-European Research and Innovation Partnership, Brussels 31 May – 1 June 2012 (Talks referred to New INDIGO events) Third EU-India STI Cooperation Days, Hyderabad, 8 – 9 November 2012 with thematic focus on Water Related Challenges 46

2013 Planned fourth EU-India STI Cooperation Days, Paris, 10 – 11 October 2013 with thematic focus on Affordable Health

Energy; and Health. Thematic groups for the other two areas addressed in the stakeholders conference, notably Bioeconomy and ICT, may be activated at a later stage. 18 The political will to strengthen EU-India STI cooperation is explicit in the agreements, discussions and events that have been described above. To support this will and assist the political process by delivering evidence, developing recommendations and networking stakeholders has been one of New INDIGO’s main tasks.

3.1 Providing evidence In addition to providing an overview of both regions S&T systems as it has been described in chapter 1.2, the New INDIGO project implemented a co-publication study which discloses patterns of European-Indian scientific cooperation and respective trends during the last decade. One of the outcomes was the New INDIGO Co-Publication Map 19, which offers easy access to cooperation patterns by combining analytical insights with innovative visualisation approaches. Published at the 3rd EU-India STI Cooperation Days in Vienna, 2011, the map is still being requested by political stakeholders from India and Europe. In addition to the Co-Publication Map, the New INDIGO website provides an interactive overview of the scientific networks produced by the co-publication analysis. 20 The transformation of sound analytical results into easy accessible communication formats, printed or digital, was a crucial stepping stone for the success of the project as well as the recognition of results by relevant stakeholders.

The EU / Presidency Trio-India Ministerial meeting in Brussels on the 31st of May 2012 reconfirmed the commitments of the joint declaration and called for the development of a Shared Strategic Agenda for Research and Innovation and for the setting up of a Group of Senior Officials (GSO) involving the EU, the Member States and India to implement the Indo-European Research and Innovation Partnership. The GSO is to articulate at three levels: Senior management level to provide overall political direction to the Partnership; working level to coordinate the contribution of stakeholders and prepare the GSO; and thematic level (GSO Thematic Groups) to elaborate a shared strategic agenda for the various thematic areas. The initial preparatory work of the GSO Thematic Groups will be without prejudice to any decisions that the GSO will take on the mandate, articulation and composition of the governance structure and functioning of the Thematic Groups. Their mandate is to support the work of and report to the GSO Working Group. Until the GSO Working Group is appointed, the Thematic Groups will support the work of and report to the IPI. Thematic Groups will build on the thematic areas covered by EU / MSIndia Stakeholders conference of May 2012. Initially three Thematic Groups will be set up on the following areas: Environment / Water;

18 European Commission; Directorate General For Research and Innovation; Directorate D – International Cooperation; D.1 – Policy coordination, EFTA and Enlargement Countries, Russia, Asia and Pacific: “Next steps in the implementation of the Indo-European Partnership for Research and Innovation, Vers 04 – 1 7. September 2012”, Concept note.

Figure 8: Interactive visualisation of EU-India co-publication patterns

19 The Co-Publication Map can be downloaded on http://www.newindigo.eu/attach/1New_ INDIGO_Map_Web.pdf

20 Visualisation is accessible on http:// newindigo.eu/bibliometrics_visualisation.html

21 http://erawatch.jrc.ec.europa.eu/erawatch/ export/sites/default/galleries/generic_files/ file_0143.pdf

Results of the co-publication study fed into the ERAWATCH study “identifying priority fields for research and innovation cooperation between the EU and India” which was authored by Ales Gnamus and published in 2011. 21 Finally, the study’s figures were cited as evidence base for recommendations within the draft Joint India-EU / MS Strategic Agenda on Research and Innovation, which was discussed at the 3rd EU-India Cooperation Days in Vienna in 2011 (see chapter 3.3).

3.2 Facilitating cross-level dialogue The bibliometric assessment was an integral part of the New INDIGO Foresight process. Besides developing recommendations for future cooperation policy, the foresight exercise aimed at building fruitful mindsets among relevant stakeholders by collaboratively setting up success scenarios for future STI cooperation between India and Europe. Therefore, the Foresight’s design included cross-sectoral information exchange between multiple stakeholder levels and initiated a strategic and at the same time integrative thinking process among policy-makers, programme owners and researchers. The exercise started at the beginning of 2011 with preliminary desk analyses on current driving factors (“drivers”) of S&T cooperation and with the analysis of EU-India co-publication trends. The results of this assessment informed the current status of S&T cooperation and was disseminated as an input to the foresight workshops (and wider policy processes). Furthermore, a series of online consultations 23 as well as expert workshops were organised to select a pool of most relevant drivers. This selection was used as a base for the development of a success scenario for future cooperation, which was then discussed and validated by researchers, programme owners and policy-makers.

23 By assessing co-publications, New INDIGO identified researchers who were already involved in EU-India cooperation and thus equipped with respective expertise.

All together, the process involved more than 1000 stakeholders from the different levels. Even though the activities explicitly aimed at developing a common scenario, evaluating drivers and finally presenting short and long-term recommendations, a major achievement of the process were the actual discussions as they led to better and more strategic thinking about the importance and the character of future STI cooperation, also by the stakeholders directly involved in the decision making processes.

One example of how the Foresight process integrated several stakeholder levels into a future-oriented dialogue is the identification and evaluation of drivers as it can be seen in the table below. A pool of drivers identified by researchers was given to programme owners, who discussed and ranked the drivers against the background of their expertise alongside three categories: relevance, feasibility and urgency.

Figure 9: New INDIGO Co-Publication Map, as published on 1.12.2011

22 The article can be downloaded on http:// www.newindigo.eu/about/publications.html

Another very visible consequence of the New INDIGO analytical tasks’ results particularly in India was the article on the DBT newsletter in June 2011 that featured the New INDIGO project. The article included information on EU-India STI policy cooperation and copublication figures. Besides, New INDIGO was featured in a number of newsletters from key stakeholders like CSIR as well as from other related projects. 22

These drivers were building blocks of the year 2020 scenario of successful S&T cooperation between Europe and India and the recommendations that were derived from it. 24 New INDIGO has had the opportunity to present the results of its foresight study, particularly the short-term programme recommendations, not only in form of a deliverable to the EC, but also in front of a high-level political stakeholders audience during the regular session of the SFIC-IPI in Vienna on the 30th of November 2011. 25 The presentation was followed by comments and a discussion with the SFIC-IPI members and contributed to contextualising and complementing the short-term programme recommendations. Additional perspectives were considered in the discussions for instance regard-

24 A description of the Foresight process as well as the final deliverable is available on http://www.newindigo.eu/foresight.

25 Presentation can be downloaded on http://www.newindigo.eu/attach/ NewINDIGOForesight-30November-SFICVienna.pdf

ing the challenges the implementation of the programme-recommendations faces in different national contexts, as well as regarding new forms of support to bi-regional collaboration (Networks / Virtual Centres of Excellence, part-time academic personnel exchange, etc.).

Drivers considered most relevant, feasible to act upon and urgent by programme makers

relevance (points)

feasibility (aver.; 1 – 4 )

urgency (aver.; 1 – 4 )

Support for research infrastructures

3,3

3,1

Removing mobility barriers

3,1

3,6

Support S&T Cooperation in areas where both regions are strong

3,6

Disseminate and spread the word about avail. Funds

3,3

3,1

Address recruiting possibilities (not to loose the best students to industry)

Internationalisation of education

2,9

Brain gain – make it attractive for PhDs to return

3,1

3,7

Joint graduate schools in specific areas of research

3,3

Schemes for joint usage of infrastructure

2,6

Common standards

3,2

Ease visa requirements

3,4

Adopt a bottom-up approach, dedicating funds to S&T cooperation in general, not to specific thematic areas

Dedicated funds for hiring outside PhDs

3,6

Orient S&T coop towards global challenges

3,5

PhD Capacity Building Programmes

3,6

3,1

Funding and donor availability

3,1

Research management support

3,3

2,9

Offer efficient and fair review mechanisms

3,4

2,8

“Researchers have to [be able to] meet …”

3,3

Ease of mobility and brain circulation

3,2

Support academic-business-government links

3,1

2,6

Research and education platforms

3,3

Joint degree programmes

3,3

Table 3: Drivers towards enhanced EU-India STI Cooperation

26 Available as download on http:// www.foresight-platform.eu/wp-content/ uploads/2013/02/EPF-Brief-No-250_NewINDIGO-Foresight-20121.pdf (as accessed on 22.7.2013)

Finally, the European Foresight Network published a fact sheet on the New INDIGO Foresight exercise in 2013 as part of their foresight exercise collection. 26 Under the header “Mediating different stakeholder levels in an International Cooperation Foresight Process”, the article summarises the major challenges and achievements of this kind of cross-sectoral strategy development.

Full Foresight study available on New INDIGO website: www.newindigo.eu/attach/NewINDIGOForesightDeliverable.pdf

3.3 2020 scenario of successful EU-India STI cooperation and respective policy recommendations Towards the end of the foresight process, three different success scenarios had been developed, with each of them highlighting different aspects of successful cooperation, namely “Facilitating-fundingtraining”, “Focusing within diversity” and “Complementarity and mutual strengths”. An Indian-European group of high-level scientists with long-standing expertise in international cooperation was then tasked to validate and complete the scenarios. Their comments and amendments supported the development of a consolidated success scenario in a final workshop, again bringing together policy-makers, programme-owners and scientists. This 2020 success scenario in its complete textual form reads as follows:

By 2020, success in EU-India S&T Cooperation has been achieved by support to activities in each of the three areas of facilitating, funding and training. With regard to the facilitation of cooperation, researchers have funds and fora available to meet their Indian / E uropean counterparts. A significant number of established multidisciplinary networks of groups and senior scientists form the core of ongoing cooperation. Research funding schemes offer dedicated project top-up funds for mobility. Barriers for short and long-term mobility such as burdensome visa procedures have been removed and, at the same time, brain circulation channels have been opened that also facilitate career development. Common standards are in place together with a standardisation in the area of IPR, allowing for fair treatment of each partner in bi-regional consortia and avoiding additional administrative efforts for the coordinators of joint projects. Formalised institutional cooperation has increased, for instance in the form of agreements between standardisation agencies (standardisation, joint testing, measurement, data, samples, etc.). Evaluation of collaborative projects and ex-post evaluation of project outcomes is uniform and transparent. As regards to funding, the availability of dedicated public as well as philanthropic financial resources is significantly higher in 2020 than it was in 2010, coupled with an increased and explicit donor commitment. Regular bi-regional calls for proposals with real joint funding (as well as virtual common pot funding programmes complementing bilateral programmes), complemented by co-funding from the European Commission, are in place. Scientists benefit from exchange schemes in the frame of specific research infrastructure in both regions as well as from access to joint infrastructure. In order to allow scientists to quickly find information and access to EU-India S&T cooperation funding, a single entry point information hub (e.g. in form of a website) for all Indian-European research funding offers is available. The results of successful joint multi- and bilateral S&T cooperation are presented to an interested business community in dedicated showcasing conferences, facilitating academia-business-society linkages. Society is involved in designing cooperation policy, priorities and the goals of collaborative research, while science itself applies a transparent and rigorous peer review mechanism. R&D activities of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are scanned both in India and Europe and showcased in both regions. Successful or potentially research-performing SMEs are routinely approached to be updated on possible public research partners. Finally, dedicated funds are available (as part of wider S&T cooperation funding) for hiring outside PhDs who can support the creation of and stabilise long-term exchange between senior scientists. Two-way short-term mobility of postdocs, postdoc exchange schemes supporting young scientists to come back to their home institutions (and countries), and similar programmes are also facilitating brain circulation.

When it comes to training, a central virtual platform exists for preparing, accompanying and motivating multilateral joint research as well as for the development of joint degrees and the exchange of PhDs in sandwich programmes. Activities and results are presented in actual workshops once a year. These support structures trigger significant brain gain in combination with mobility schemes mentioned above, for instance when an Indian fellow spends two years of his / her PhD in Europe and the rest of the time in India or vice versa. There are mechanisms in place for the development and quality control of joint PhD programmes. Joint programmes take advantage of online and virtual learning systems.

i) Short-term recommendations Extended programme context Ensure that no multiple approvals are required for repeated visits within a project (inform embassies / f oreign ministries / V FS) Provide longer-term multiple-entry visas linked to project duration Jointly publish common methods and standards, validated among various labs to secure global acceptance and facilitate collaboration Develop a common set of rules for shipment / exchange of recombinant human and animal samples, avoiding long-term clearing processes Science-industry linkages Support common standards in patenting, e.g. based on the Patent Cooperation Treaty. Support mentors from industry working on research problems in areas of joint interest public / private Exchange of professionals from industry to public research labs and students to industry Establish fellowships for including students in applied private R&D Encourage projects at the interface between pure and applied science (e.g. a concrete interface programme aiming at applying basic science to applied fields) Mode for selecting thematic priorities for cooperation

Mixed scientist-policy maker working groups combining both top-down and bottom-up approaches in identifying topics in each region and then start dialogue with the other side (same procedure) in an India-Europe group; possible groups: SFIC, Europe Science, corresponding Indian fora Once this group is in place: map clusters and centres of excellence (in both science and industry) and categorise long- and short-term priorities Open platforms for sharing what is happening in the different countries; these platforms should also be problem solvers for the different disciplines (virtual platforms) Call publishing, funding modes & reporting / m onitoring Consider a combination of real and virtual common pot funding (with real common funding for launching, administrating and implementing the call) Keep up bi-regional monitoring and reporting; including mid-term and ex-post evaluations Ensure regular multilateral calls within Commission-supported projects (e.g. once / y ear) with a variable geometry and different thematic priorities Keep short the time lag between proposal submission and start of projects (7 – 9 months max) Optimise evaluation procedures (without compromising on quality) Offer a joint single-entry point for bi-regional research funds, starting with a comprehensive website (offering call information) moving towards a joint programme managing agency Take stock of the learning effects of the existing partnerships such as ERA-NETs Network Setup Address brain circulation directly in programme design, allowing for flexible mobility of both junior and senior scientists Ensure mutuality in exchange and analysis of biomaterials Programmes should be of a longer duration (>2 years) for building sustainable cooperation Give support to an increased use of virtual conferences and e-learning infrastructure Encourage institutions participating in joint programmes to provide adequate guest houses or agreements with nearby hotels Allow for room / t ime, both at project and programme level, to build on examples and implement changes in case cooperation does not work as expected Higher education issues Increase cross-regional interaction, e.g. between clinicians and between clinicians and basic scientists Encourage joint supervision of PhDs, acknowledging the joint character of the research done by the PhD candidate Offer short-term internship training programmes Support Master-level students doing a few months of lab internships with the scientists in the other region Developing infrastructure and facilities

ii) Long-term recommendations: facilitating acknowledge and capitalise on the important role of established multidisciplinary networks: Multidisciplinary networks existent over longer periods of time ensure mutual trust and establish sustainable entry points for other researchers interested in cooperation. make available top-up funds for mobility: Particularly the scientist stakeholders expressed that for cooperation, face-to-face interaction is crucial from time to time. By this means, established contact is not lost, but kept alive. Researchers then tend to also have their colleagues from the other region in mind when going for future research projects, etc. allow for brain circulation, removing barriers for mobility and facilitating career development: Related to the recommendation regarding mobility, it is important that human resources circulate without leading to brain drain effects for one of the regions involved. Mobility and research cooperation should become integral parts of researchers’ careers with appropriate incentives and reward systems. ensure common standards (methodology, data, samples, evaluations) and formalised institutional cooperation: Common standards as well as formalised institutional cooperation (e.g. between standard setting agencies, but also universities) add a practical dimension to cooperation efforts. It is easier for research teams if they can share data and samples (e.g. biomaterials) for common research purposes. Likewise, it is helpful if researchers from one region can rely on the metrology and standard of evaluations of the other region’s standard setting and enforcing bodies. When looking at evaluation standards in research funding agencies, this point is also linked to the following dimension addressed by the consolidated success scenario. funding allow for financial resources (public and, increasingly, philanthropic): It might sound obvious, but it is crucial that dedicated resources are available if researchers see an opportunity and wish to engage in joint collaborative work. Taking into account general trends in the funding of publicly relevant research, philanthropic resources will be more relevant and increasingly be tapped into in our 2020 scenario. enable access to joint and national infrastructure: This not only helps to make the most out of expensive infrastructure, but also ensures that research teams can physically meet at the location of central infrastructure used in joint projects. In case certain infrastructure or equipment is only available in one of the participating regions, it should be avoided to completely exclude the other party from using this infrastructure. By offering access and jointly using national infrastructure, an important training element can be added to joint research efforts. Another option increasingly relevant in the future could be infrastructure that is actually jointly acquired and open for use for both sides. offer a single-entry point for information: Scientists interested in or in need of opportunities for collaboration with the target region (India for Europeans and vice versa) should not face the burden of multiple and non-transparent communication channels, i.e. they should not waste their time looking from where to get the right information from. One portal should act as an information one-stop-shop for cooperation between two regions (ideally, this would be linked to platforms focusing on other regions). present results to interested business communities: It is a challenge to fund public or public cooperative research. Moreover, it is a constant challenge for science to make possible users aware of the knowledge available, jointly transforming it into applications. Bi-regional cooperative research faces the same challenges. However, it has the advantage of offering access to, in principle, business communities from both regions. Formats should be found to present the results and possibilities of joint research to business communities in ways that take into account the private sector’s needs and limitations (e.g. fear of loosing competitive advantages or intellectual property when disclosing investment decisions and research interests). approach SMEs with potential for R&D: Collaborative research could and should also increasingly be used as a leverage to help SMEs to extend their R&D activities. Supporting by mappings of the private SME landscape, possibly interested SMEs can be selected and approached for discussions of efforts in exploiting results of joint research. make available dedicated funds for ‘outside’ PhDs and two-way postdoc mobility: Many respondents made clear how important young researchers are for establishing and, even more, maintaining S&T cooperation between two and more labs. While the senior researchers often have little time to spend longer periods with the partners in the other region, it is the junior researchers who can sustain the collaborative momentum in doing actual work together over longer stretches of time. Through their reporting back to the senior researchers, these also remain in touch and align their research agendas. PhD and postdoc exchange is also relevant for ensuring comparable standards in teaching and research. These and other reasons indicate that it would be a great instrument for professors to have some bottom-up resources (linked to their research) at hand when inviting foreign PhDs or engaging in postdoc exchange. training offer training schemes including mobility for brain gain: Training is often the first step towards full-fledged research cooperation. It is also crucial in alleviating weaknesses in a region’s curricula and research activities. Trainees should not considered a mere cost, but can effectively used for own research tasks, in addition to and as part of their training. establish joint PhD programmes: While in the short run, joint PhD supervision can also be realised without formal joint PhD programmes, the more sustainable long-term goal of formalised joint PhD programmes can help university faculties in ensuring junior researcher exchange and collaborative work at similar standards of teaching and research.

3.4 Networking stakeholders at the EU-India STI Cooperation Days

27 The EU-India STI Cooperation Days have been organised in cooperation with EUINEC, India GATE, EURAXESS links India, Bio Circle, EBTC. List of related projects is to be found on www.euindiacoop.org

Embedding political stakeholders meetings into a framework of information and networking events for innovators and researchers from India and Europe, the New INDIGO annual event EU-India STI Cooperation Days supported discursive exchange among policymakers and raised awareness for priorities and proceedings of STI cooperation policy. To allow for utmost synergies, the event was organised in close collaboration with related projectsâ&#x20AC;&#x160;27 as well as with the support of partner organisations, national ministries, the EUDelegation to India and the European Commission. The first conference was organised in New Delhi in 2009 and supported bi-regional cooperation in the field of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries. The second edition, held back to back with the meeting of SFIC IPI in Vienna in 2011, had its focus on Biotechnology and Health and was particularly successful in attracting a large number of excellent scientists from India to come to Europe. In 2012, New INDIGO together with EUINEC and EURAXESS links India invited scientists and innovators to the CSIR National Geophysical Research Institute in Hyderabad to discuss innovative solutions for Waterrelated Challenges. Again taking into account societal challenges of both regions, Affordable Health has been chosen as focus of the fourth and last EU-India STI Cooperation Days spearheaded by New INDIGO, to be held in Paris in 2013. Ever since the second edition, the event attracted more than 150 scientists, innovators, policy-makers, funding agencies and science administrators. Attendees were offered a comprehensive programme, including political round tables and discussions towards joint strategy development, information and exchange sessions on how to innovate in a bi-regional scope as well as scientific presentations and information on STI cooperation services. Among others, the complex format of the event enabled scientists and innovators to feed their experience and input into the policy-dialogue and thereby contribute, for example, to the definition of joint priorities. Besides, the EU-India STI Cooperation Days were meant to showcase the results of scientific, technologic and innovation cooperation between Europe and India and thereby promote and further increase cooperation. Therefore, researchers involved in multilateral projects funded under FP7 or under EU-India bilateral schemes, as well as researchers funded under the NPP, were invited to present major scientific results and reflect upon their collaboration.

You will find event information and summaries as well as the relevant presentations on the following websites: 1st EU-India S&T Cooperation Days, New Delhi, 2009 www.euindiacoop.org/2009/ 2nd EU-India S&T Cooperation Days, Vienna, 2011 www.euindiacoop.org/2011/ 3rd EU-India STI Cooperation Days, Hyderabad, 2012 www.euindiacoop.org/2012/ 4th EU-India STI Cooperation Days, Paris, 2013 euindiasticooperationdays.teamwork.fr

OUTLOOK

Looking back five years ago since the project started, New INDIGO has successfully created a multilateral framework for EU-India STI cooperation, allowing for coordination of efforts whenever needed. New INDIGO has proved that such a scheme is both technically feasible and attractive to scientists, policy-makers and funding organisations. However, many challenges remain ahead on the road to success. In order to tackle them, the European Commission had funded and approved the launch of INNO INDIGO and INDIGO POLICY projects which will start in November 2013. These two projects will not only build on the successes already achieved through the New INDIGO project, but will also take EU-India collaboration in Science, Technology and Innovation a step further!

The first challenge to be tackled is that of the institutionalisation of the scheme for joint multilateral calls. It needs to become more foreseeable, more visible and more sustainable. The ambition is the sustainability of scheme; that it continues to run even after the EC funding stops in 2016. It is aimed that INNO INDIGO provides a common platform for European and Indian funding organisations and industries to finance jointly research and innovation. The foreseeability of procedures and thematic areas of the calls will ensure the success of the scheme and will allow the platform to reach new funders. In line with the Innovation Union flagship initiative, which aims to create the conditions for growth, jobs and competitiveness, as well as with the Indian decade of Innovation (2010 – 2020), an important step needs to be taken towards innovation. This is the second challenge that the projects will face. In order to bring new ideas to the market, INNO INDIGO in particular, will actively seek the involvement of industries alongside academic actors in its calls. The political dialogue between Europe and India has been reinforced with the decision of the European Strategic Forum for International Cooperation (SFIC) and the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) in 2012 to establish a joint Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda (SRIA) and an overarching “Group of Senior officials” (GSO) to harmonise the research cooperation between both regions. The third challenge will be to ensure that the tools to support and expand the policy dialogue exist. This is what the new project INDIGO POLICY will offer through support to the thematic working groups under the GSO, organisation of joint EU-India STI days and in depth analysis of STIrelated issues and trend of EU-India collaboration. Among these challenges that INNO INDIGO and INDIGO POLICY will address, one could also stress the need and importance to support the coordination of European STI organisations having a foothold in India as well as the opening up of bilateral programmes to partners from third MS / AC countries. … and there will be, for sure, many other unexpected challenges along the way!

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EBTC European Business and Technology Centre EC European Commission EFTA European Free Trade Association ERA European Research Area ERC European Research Council EU European Union FP6 European Union’s 6th Framework Programme FP7 European Union’s 7th Framework Programme GSO Group of Senior Officials ICT Information and Communications Technology IPI Indian Pilot Initiative KBBE Knowledge Based Bio-Economy NCP National Contact Points NMP Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and new Production Technologies NPP New INDIGO Partnership Programme, New INDIGO Networking Pilot Programme RTD Research, Technology and Development SFIC EC’s Strategic Forum for International Science and Technology Cooperation SMEs Small and Medium Enterprises S&T Science and Technology STI Science, Technology and Innovation VCP Virtual Common Pot