National Science Foundation Facilitates US-India Tech Research Collaboration

The U.S. National Science Foundation is working to facilitate collaborative research between the United States and India in an effort to fast-track developing new technologies, tools and systems.

In a partnership with six technology innovation hubs supported by the Indian Department of Science and Technology––as part of a five-year, almost $430 million investment by the Indian government––the NSF announced the selection of U.S. supplemental funding awards totaling $2.8 million to support the American portion of projects, such as those focusing on artificial intelligence, data science and edge computing. The awards will help U.S.-India collaboration on science and technology.

NSF states that the collaboration between the two countries is an example of its “commitment to cultivating international partnerships that produce and benefit the scientific and technological discoveries of allies with common scientific visions and goals.” 

“NSF is proud of the partnerships India and the U.S. have harnessed and cherished over the past few decades,” NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan said. “Both nations share common values and aspirations to advance societal progress. We should work hard to encourage and facilitate global experiences for our students throughout their STEM education journey.”

This joint effort allows both countries to utilize international datasets and expertise; participate in multinational standards-setting groups as well as scientific and technical organizations; improve international cooperation with these collaborative projects, and improve work between researchers and various initiatives. 

NSF previously sent a Dear Colleague Letter in February encouraging this type of collaboration. 

“It was exciting to see the strong response we received to the joint call for proposals,” Gurdip Singh, division director for Computer and Network Systems at NSF, said. “The awarded researchers are now looking forward to initiating the collaborations. We are hoping that these partnerships will amplify the impact of collaborative research to address societal challenges in the two countries and facilitate student and researcher exchange efforts.”

The project aims to add international collaboration with current research projects in both countries to take advantage of unique resources in the U.S. and India, strengthen and expand collaborations on important technologies like artificial intelligence and encourage exchange programs for students and researchers.