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Published on November 9, 2010
Moving a step closer in tackling climate change, India and the US has announced a joint initiative for development of clean energy technologies.
An agreement to set up a Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Centre was signed by Maharaj Kishan Bhan, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology and Timothy Roemer, the US Ambassador to India.
“It will not be a new bricks-and-mortar centre staffed by government researchers,” Bhan said after signing the agreement in New Delhi on Monday.
He said the Centre’s work will be conducted in existing facilities by consortia with the knowledge and experience to first-rate collaborative research programmes between the United States and India.
The US and India will pitch in with five million dollars each over the next five years towards the Centre which will address areas like solar energy, second generation biofuels and building efficiency on a priority.
The centre will involve the active participation of academic and private sectors of both the countries working in a consortia mode, Bhan said.
The overall aim of the centre is to facilitate joint research and development on clean energy by teams of scientists, technologists and engineers from India and the US, and related joint activities, needed to deploy clean energy technologies rapidly with the greatest impact.
To achieve this objective, the centre will support multi-institutional network project costs using public-private partnership model of funding support.
“For the application process, we are working on a joint US-India Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) – something that has not been tried before. This is a novel and ambitious approach to creating a truly joint process that we hope will result in real collaboration,” Bhan said.
The overall aim of the JCERDC is to facilitate joint research and development on clean energy by teams of scientists, technologists and engineers from India and the US, and related joint activities, needed to deploy clean energy technologies rapidly with the greatest impact.