IIT-Roorkee, University of Southampton partner for research

New Delhi, May 17 (IANS) The Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee Saturday announced a partnership with University of Southampton to promote collaborative research primarily in the areas of aviation and railway engineering.

The agreement, which was signed May 13 during a workshop at Southampton, aims to develop technological solutions.

"There are tremendous synergies between our institutions and excellent opportunities to build on these, via a number of initiatives developed by the UK and Indian governments to promote collaborative research, for example UKIERI (UK-India Education and Research Initiative) and the recently established Newton-Bhabha Fund," Mark Spearing, pro vice-chancellor (international) for the University of Southampton, said.

IIT-Roorkee director Pradipta Banerji said that the institutions are conducting various thematic workshops in both the countries to cement relationships.

"The workshop this week in Southampton already enabled us to identify areas where there is real potential for thematic scientific collaboration and we very excited to be holding the next workshop at our Roorkee campus in July," he said.

Other planned initiatives include staff visits, exchanges and proposals.