A Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) was signed between Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), and The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT), Stockholm, Sweden, to strengthen cooperation and promote research networking between research institutions from both countries.

The MoC was signed on 13 March 2023 by Dr. Akhilesh Gupta, Secretary, SERB, and Dr. Andreas Göthenberg, Executive Director, STINT, in the presence of Dr. Erik Forsberg, Representative in APAC, STINT, and Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Dr. S. Chandrasekhar and Mr. Håkan Jevrell, State Secretary to Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade.

The MoC aims to promote mobility funding opportunities in both countries. It will facilitate academic cooperation through mobility activities as well as through seminars, workshops and conferences.

In his special address, Dr. S. Chandrasekhar, Secretary, DST, stressed that many such international collaborations are taking impetus under Hon'ble PM Narendra Modiji, especially in the year of India’s G 20 presidentship and the partnership between India and Sweden will take forward joint S&T efforts particularly in smart cities, artificial intelligence, quantum computer, transportation, and many more futuristic technologies. “This MoC will enable a smooth exchange of activities between our young scientists and Swedish researchers,” he added.

“This is the milestone of the collaboration between India and Sweden and gives the opportunity to Sweden & India to spur cooperation in research and development. It can also lead to more common projects involving interaction between researchers in Sweden & India where they can come together and explore new areas of research”, said Mr. Håkan Jevrell, State Secretary to Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade.

“I am confident this joint initiative will inspire new research connections between researchers in Sweden and India. A STINT partnership with SERB is a natural step for scaling up academic cooperation between universities in Sweden and India, especially following the call offered by STINT last year for initiating new collaborative projects between universities in the two countries.” said Dr. Andreas Göthenberg, Executive Director, STINT.

Both institutions will facilitate and fund researcher mobility through their regular funding programmes.

Dr. Per-Arne Wikström, Counsellor – Innovation and Science, Office of Science and Innovation, Embassy of Sweden, and other officials from DST, SERB, and Sweden also attended the programme.

The two organisations will announce a call that will focus on funding new mobility projects that will be used to exchange several individuals, including workshops between participating research groups. Researchers and scholars at institutions of higher education in Sweden and research institutions in India are eligible to apply for funding under this call, in which applications will be jointly funded.                                               

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