A new programme for the exchange of researchers and knowledge through joint collaborative projects between Indian and German researchers has been formalised with the signing of implementation guidelines between the two countries. This initiates an opportunity for early-career researchers to obtain doctoral degrees within the framework of a focused joint research programme as well as a structured training programme.
Department of Science & Technology (DST), India and German Research Office (DFG) signed the guidelines for the programme called International Research Training Group (IRTG), which will take forward the long-standing cooperation on basic and applied science between both the countries that has been in place since October 2004. Shri SK Varshney, Head of International Bilateral Cooperation Division, DST and Dr Ulrike Eickhoff, Head of Department, Coordinated Programmes and Infrastructure, DFG, signed the document on behalf of DST and DFG, respectively.
Under the joint programme, each IRTG will be run by two small teams of professors, one in India and another in Germany. Each team will have about 5 to 10 members with proven expertise both in the IRTG's main research topic will provide supervision to doctoral students. The programme will allow coordination of research and training of doctoral students in both countries.
The programme guidelines specify that professors participating in the IRTG programme should be based at a single institution in India and Germany. Both DST and DFG will provide funding for IRTG project for doctoral positions/fellowships, project-specific dissertation research projects, reciprocal research visits to the respective partner institutions, joint workshops, conferences and seminars.
India-German IRTG Programme will be supported for a maximum of 9 years, divided into two funding periods of 4.5 years each. It is a full-fledge research endeavor whose core is to bring an innovative research idea that focuses on one main topic, jointly with shared research interests and objectives reflected in a common framework.
