DST, Russia’s FASIE sign MoU for R&D cooperation for start-ups and SME sector

India and Russia on Tuesday concluded an MOU on the unified technology assessment and accelerated commercialisation programme.

Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST) Ashutosh Sharma and director general, Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises (FASIE), Russia, Dr Sergey Polyakov signed the agreement on Tuesday.

The MOU aims at facilitating support enterprises to improve their global competitiveness through international cooperation, innovative activities and technology transfer. The two agencies (DST and FASIE) will link the Indian and Russian organisations and institutions to develop user-friendly and easy mechanisms for assisting companies and research entities to jointly develop technology collaboration and joint projects, an official release stated.

The two sides discussed several simple ways for encouraging young scientists to cooperate in areas of mutual interest.

The meeting concluded with an addendum to the agreement between DST and RSF on coordinated competition for conducting collaborating research. Both sides would support young achievers (less than 39 years) in a competitive mode for joint collaborative research. Next call for proposals would be made in 2018. At present, 17 joint projects are being supported by DST and RSF jointly.

''Science and technology cooperation between India and the Russian Federation has been one of the important pillars of the long standing and time tested bilateral relationship. The vibrant partnership in science and technology has created a win-win situation which is driven by a sense of confidence and purpose in achieving together. This deepening relationship has enabled the free confluence of researchers across disciplines and institutions both from academia and research laboratories,''an official release stated.

India and Russia are celebrating the 70th year of establishment diplomatic relations between the two countries. Department of Science and Technology, and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Moscow are also celebrating 10th year of their partnership.

Two sides are agreed to work for start-up companies and entrepreneurs and to establish Indo-Russian Bridge for Innovation.

The DST-RFBR programme today provides one of the robust platforms for bilateral scientific cooperation in basic sciences. It has given access to Indian scientists to work with the entire spectrum of Russian academic and scientific institutions in pursuing front ranking curiosity driven fundamental research of international standards.

The first call under DST-RFBR programme was awarded in 2008. In the last ten years, DST and RFBR have jointly supported 254 research projects out of 870 project proposals received. The proposals have an average success rate of about 25 per cent. In terms of scientific areas, projects have been supported across the fields of basic sciences covering physics and astronomy (69 projects), chemistry and material sciences (55 projects), biology and medical sciences (34 projects), earth sciences (32 projects), mathematics (27 projects), engineering sciences (23 projects) and computer sciences and telecommunications (14 projects).

Around 800 research publications have emerged from these projects, averaging publications per project.