New INDIGO

Basic Information

Description

"New INDIGO is a follow-up of the SSA project AOUDA, which was aimed at mapping and analysing existing bilateral S&T cooperation programmes between European member states and India. In view of its growth and dominant position in Asia, India has been quoted a strategic target country by the European Commission. On the other hand longstanding scientific cooperation between India and certain European countries has been vigorous and fruitful. Despite these facts, there is little multilateral S&T cooperation between the European Union and India, and there is no dedicated program of cooperation between these two big scientific poles. The aim of New INDIGO is to help filling these gaps and ultimately provide the most relevant framework to allow the scientific community and institutions of India to access the European Research Area, and the Euro-Indian S&T cooperation to fully benefit from the new networking tools which have been set up by the European Commission. For this purpose New INDIGO will develop a large database, but also it will set up a two years long Networking Pilot Program (NPP) to be launched at the ERA scale, taking advantage of existing bilateral programs and enhancing existing networks or clusters as well as arousing new ones. The scientific projects will be selected according to a rigorous process, then they will be followed and analysed in order to evaluate the strength and weaknesses of the programme and to pave the way to future integrated programmes of cooperation between Europe and India. To achieve these goals, a consortium composed of 12 European and 3 Indian prominent S&T institutions has been set up. A group of observers will also advise the consortium. The expected outcomes are the promotion of an integrated Europe-India research area, the raising of awareness and networking between European and Indian S&T research, including new member states, and a significant contribution to the elaboration of S&T policies in both Europe and India."