India, Canada to promote innovation through talent mobility

New Delhi : The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was apprised of an agreement between India and Canada to promote collaboration in research and innovation through talent mobility.

"The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aims at fostering cross-border partnerships focused on research excellence and industry-academic collaboration between India and Canada that brings robust innovation gains to both countries," said an official statement.

The core of the MoU, signed on February 21, is to ignite collaboration through talent mobility. It would enable Indian and Canadian researchers to undertake graduate level academic research mobility and cross-border industry-academic cooperation.

"Under the graduate level academic research mobility programme, both sides intend to support up to 110 Master's and PhD student researchers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields," it said.

The students from eligible universities in India would participate in 12 to 24 weeks' research with Canadian university research laboratories in a three-year period. The same number of researchers from Canadian universities will also participate for the same period in India.

"Under the cross-border Industry-Academic Cooperation, up to 40 Master's and PhD student researchers in three years from each side would participate in 16 to 24 weeks' research with industry partners located in the counterpart country," the Cabinet said.

The collaboration is expected to lead to new knowledge creation, joint scientific publications, industrial exposure, IP generation and others. 

"This MoU will further strengthen the long-standing relationship in Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation with Canada," it said.