University of Manchester and The Indian Institute of Science Sign India-UK Joint Doctoral Programme and Seed Fund

The University of Manchester and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, India are pleased to announce the launch of a joint award PhD programme which represents the next phase of a strategic partnership.

The partnership will serve to consolidate and build on existing research collaborations across a number of thematic areas including Biomaterials, Graphene, Environmental Sciences (including atmospheric sciences), Advanced Manufacturing and artificial intelligence/machine learning application in agriculture, health and industry.

Students will be jointly selected and spend time in both Manchester and Bengaluru, benefiting from the expertise, facilities and infrastructure of two globally renowned institutions. The partnership will be further strengthened by a Seed Fund that will support the incubation of new collaborations and projects between the two partner institutions.

The programme was formally signed by Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester, and Captain Sridhar Warrier, Registrar of the Indian Institute of Science at a ceremony at IISc, Bangalore. Prof Rothwell was accompanied by Prof Stephen Flint, Associate Vice President for International and other internationalisation leads from the Faculty of Science and Engineering and the Faculty of Biology, Medicine & Health on her visit to IISc, as part of the University’s delegation visit in India. The delegation met with the Director of IISc, Prof. Govindan Rangarajan, and other senior colleagues for the signing ceremony.

Successful candidates will spend the first year at IISc with the remaining time on the programme split between The University of Manchester and IISc according to the project requirements as determined by the supervisors and the Joint Programme Board. The students will be awarded a joint degree from both institutions, based on a single research experience managed cooperatively by both institutions.

For IISc, India’s leading University for Science and Technology, this represents only their third Joint Doctoral Programme and the first with a European partner. For the University of Manchester, this follows the highly successful launch of similar Dual PhD programmes with the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, University of Toronto, University of Melbourne, and the University of Chile. As a core component of its international strategy, The University of Manchester is entering into a small number of dual award PhD programmes with prestigious partner institutions around the world.

“We are delighted to enter into this joint PhD agreement with IISc, the leading science and technology University in India. Graduates from this programme will have the unique advantage of acquiring the best knowledge and skills offered by both these eminent institutions.”, said Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-chancellor

The Director of IISc, Professor Govindan Rangajaran, said “Indian Institute of Science is pleased to partner with The University of Manchester for the joint PhD programme. Given multiple areas of mutual interest to both institutions, we are confident that this will be a very productive partnership that further strengthens our ties.”

Professor Stephen Flint said: “The joint PhD programme with IISc is testament to the University’s strategic ambitions to build world-class research links with India and to encourage more student mobility between the two countries.” He further added, “The University of Manchester established research partnerships with IISc some years ago and this PhD programme is the next step in deepening our relationship, with academic colleagues in both institutions sharing supervision of the PhD students, who will spend 2 years in Manchester and 2 years in Bengaluru. This agreement reflects the growing strength of partnership between the UK and India."

Academics from the two institutions will liaise to define projects which are approved by a Joint Programme Board. The research Seed Fund will support staff and student exchange, workshops and other modes of engagement to facilitate the establishment of these projects and new collaborations. Initial areas of focus will include Industry 4.0, Advanced Manufacturing, Environmental Science and Advanced Materials.  Under this programme, full and partial funding will be available on a competitive basis, and we expect the opportunity to benefit from the expertise and infrastructure of two globally renowned institutions will present an attractive prospect for talented aspiring researchers.