1. Research Councils UK in India
Dr Sophie Laurie
RCUK Strategy Unit International

2. Who are the Research Councils?
Main public investors in fundamental research in the UK
Public funding mainly via the Science Budget: around £3 billion per annum to the Research Councils over
Non-Departmental Public Bodies established by Royal Charter
Accountable to Parliament, via the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills

3. The Research Councils

4. The Research Councils
Support world class research in an international context
Raise UK profile and competitiveness by engaging the ‘best with the best’
Facilitate access to funding sources and facilities
Deliver responsibility on major global issues

5. Specific missions - common objectives
Support basic, strategic and applied research
Support postgraduate training
Advance knowledge and technology and provide services and trained people that lead to social, cultural and economic impact
Promote science in society

6. What is Research Councils UK?
The name for the Research Councils working together
Increases the collective visibility, leadership and policy influence of the Research Councils
Provides a single focus for collective dialogue with stakeholders
Ensures greater harmonisation of operational and administrative functions across the Councils

7. Promoting partnerships
Academic partnerships
Wealth of RC schemes including Science Bridges.
Funding partnerships
Strategic and bottom up
Facility sharing
New RCUK Offices in China, US and India have important role

8. Influencing Global policy agenda
Key ambition of RCUK
Improve UK profile overseas
Increase collective visibility of Research councils in global research environment
Strategic input co-ordinated from UK
RCUK Overseas offices give unique perspective in country

9. Six programmes involving three or more Councils
Energy
Living With Environmental Change
Global Uncertainties: Security For All in a Changing World
Ageing: Life-Long Health and Wellbeing
Digital Economy
Nanotechnology through engineering to application

10. Opportunities in India
Average economic growth 8% since 2003
Three fold increase in R&D spend in the last decade
Enormous expansion plans for the HE system - 45 million graduate population
English-speaking
Non-resident Indians (>20m) - largest ethnic minority group in UK
Key drivers of Indian innovation
Great desire to collaborate – research funders have cash

11. Some challenges…….
People Aged 60 Years and Over (in Million)

12. Funding opportunities/challenges
Plan Outlay for ICMR 6-11th Plan periods
£525m

13. View from ICMR Large, diverse population steeped in tradition
Ensures that many rarer genetic disorders have survived in India, and this can become the subject matter of valuable research.
Future belongs to bio-informatics
India, with its strong IT base, can take a lead in research areas which require strong software inputs.
India is already a huge and fast growing market for pharmaceuticals
New drug discoveries are generally assured of good commercial returns.

14. View from ICMR Huge and diverse clinical material for research
Gives India a unique opportunity to turn an acknowledged disadvantage into a research advantage
Has a strong claim to being an appropriate site for clinical trials
As the companies seek to conduct global trials, contract research organizations in India are ideally placed to take advantage of this opportunity.
India has a rich and unmatched heritage of traditional systems of medicine
This can provide leads for new discoveries for the treatment of many apparently incurable chronic ailments

15. Working mutually and building a reciprocal relationship
Reality in India
More people suffering from hunger (over 200 million) - than any other country in the world (2008 Global Hunger Index)
One in five Indian children are malnourished
80% population live on less than $2 per day
Less than 50% of females are literate
Working mutually and building a reciprocal relationship

17. The RCUK Office in India
Great opportunity and potential – understanding required
To make it easier for the UK and India to develop high quality, high impact research partnerships…
INFLUENCE:
develop positive, sustainable and influential relationships with key stakeholders
EXCELLENCE:
support the facilitation of high quality UK-India research collaborations
IMPACT:
build profile of the Office to influence policy & deliver valuable, high impact outputs

18. Ambitions
Facilitating long term truly reciprocal activities across the range from workshops to large scale funded initiatives.
Working in partnership with others in India – both academic and non-academic.
Working strategically with Research Councils and others in the UK

19. Current Activities
Collaborating with the Indian DST on joint peer review and funding
Science Bridges (top down)
Next Generation Network initiatives (bottom up)
Working with the Indian Council for Social Science Research in workshops to discuss social science priorities e.g.
last month - Climate Change with keynote from Nick Stern
this week – Economic Restructuring, Higher
Education & Social Inequalities

20. Upcoming activities and future priorities
Joint investment (£5 M each side) with the DST on Solar Energy
Global Initiative on non-communicable diseases with the Indian Council for Medical Research
Focus areas;
Digital Economy (creative industries and development)
Security (food and water)

21. Working in partnership
S & I Network
Climate Change and Energy
Economics Section

22. The RCUK Office in India
Alicia Greated
Sukanya Kumar Sinha
Naomi Beaumont