India and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy, have initiated an India-ICTP Co-operation Fund to strengthen scientific collaboration and create greater opportunities for Indian researchers, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh said on Sunday.

Source: IANS via Hi India

The initiative was formalised through the signing of a Letter of Intent between India's Department of Science and Technology (DST) and ICTP during the minister's visit to the centre in Trieste. The Letter of Intent was exchanged on behalf of India by Dr Praveenkumar Somasundaram, Head of International Cooperation at DST, the Ministry of Science and Technology said.

Source: Ministry of Science and Technology via CrackTarget

Welcoming the development, Dr Singh said the fund would provide greater momentum to the existing engagement between the two sides and generate wider benefits for Indian researchers. He emphasised the importance of institutionalising the longstanding relationship to strengthen scientific collaboration and facilitate greater mobility of researchers.

The proposed fund is expected to create a structured mechanism to support and expand interactions between India and ICTP, particularly by providing more opportunities for Indian researchers to engage with the international scientific community, building on decades of cooperation in which Indian scientists, researchers and students have taken part in ICTP's academic and research programmes.

A long-running partnership

ICTP is regarded as one of the world's leading centres for advanced research, higher education and capacity building in physics, mathematics and related scientific disciplines. Indian institutions including DST, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and leading universities have partnered with ICTP on research and capacity-building initiatives, and Indian researchers have benefited from its visiting fellowships, diploma courses and postdoctoral programmes.

The collaboration spans several frontier areas of science, including high-energy physics, astrophysics, climate modelling and computational science, with ICTP experts regularly interacting with Indian scientific communities working in these fields.