Final Report Summary - NEW INDIGO (Initiative for the Development and Integration of Indian and European Research)
Executive Summary:
India has become a prominent country in Science, Technology and Innovation. The share of Indian publications almost doubled over the decade 2000-2010 and public spending in R&D increased by 40 % over the last three decades. Moreover, India is developing a pro-active policy to boost R&D private investments and to support the emergence of new products and services on the market.
In line, with the growing importance of Indian in the STI landscape, India has been quoted a strategic target country by the European Commission. The Europe-India Science and Technology Agreement signed in November 2001 and renewed in 2010 was followed by Joint declaration on Research and Innovation at the EU-India Summit of 10 February 2010, which was calling for the implementation of an EU-India partnership in Science and Innovation. The joint declaration was also calling for joint actions and the development of a Strategic Agenda for Research and Innovation (SIRA) in order to identify thematic fields of priority interest for collaboration.
However, despite the numerous bilateral agreements between EU MS/ AC and India, relationships in R&D have not been harmonized so far at the European level.
The aim of New INDIGO was to help filling these gaps and ultimately provide the most relevant framework:
• To launch and monitor multilateral calls for proposals and tackle societal challenges by achieving critical mass
• To network the scientific community and institutions of India and Europe, especially through promoting Indian participation in the EU Framework program (FP7 and Horizon 2020) but also in bilateral programs
• To support the policy dialogue between Europe and India
The project was coordinated by the French National Center for Scientific research (CNRS) from January 2009 to December 2013. New INDIGO consortium was made of 29 partners from 13 countries:
- National Center for Scientific Research, France (CNRS)
- Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India (CSIR)
- International Bureau of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research at the German Aerospace Center, Germany (DLR)
- Centre for Social Innovation, Austria (ZSI)
- Department of Biotechnology, India (DBT)
- The Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal (FCT)
- Association of Electronics and Information Technology Industries of the Basque Country, Spain (GAIA)
- Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, Turkey (TUBITAK)
- Department of Science and Technology, India (DST)
- Indian Council of Medical Research, India (ICMR)
- Indian Institute of Science, India (IISc)
- Royal Society, UK (RS)
- German Research Foundation, Germany (DFG)
- Research Councils UK, UK (RCUK)
- Academy of Finland, Finland (AKA)
- Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain (MINECO)
- Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Netherlands (KNAW)
- National Institute of Health and Medical Research, France (INSERM)
- Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation, Denmark (DASTI)
- Research Council of Norway, Norway (RCN)
- National Institute for Agricultural Research, France (INRIA)
- Euraxess links India, India
- Ministry of Higher Education and Research, France (MESR)
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs, France (MAE)
- Federal Ministry of Science and Research, Austria (BMWF)
- Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (BMBF)
Project Context and Objectives:
India is a country of growing importance in the STI landscape and is implementing an active policy to strengthen its Research and Innovation system, through the 12th five-year plan (2012-2017) and the Decade of Innovation (2010-2020).
Accordingly, India’s public spending in R&D increased by 40% over the last three decades, with India ranking 8th in terms of R&D public spending in 2012. The share of Indian publications almost doubled over the decade 2000-2010 and patent applications also steadily increased. In 2012, India ranked 3rd in terms of country destination for multinational R&D centers.
In line with India emergence in the STI landscape, a growing number of EU Member States and Associated Countries have established bilateral relations with this country. Alongside these numerous bilateral agreements, the European Union has established strong relations with India and ambitions to create an “EU-India Partnership in Research and Innovation”.
The first EU-India S&T Cooperation Agreement was signed in 2001 and renewed in 2007. It was followed by the launch of four coordinated calls, with co-investment or resources from both sides. In total more than 60m€ budget, where invested from both sides in four fields identified as areas of priority interest for collaboration: computational materials, food nutrition, solar energy and water-related challenges. In 2010, as part of a Strategic Forum for International Cooperation (SFIC) initiative, an EU-MS India Pilot Initiative (IPI) working towards a strategic EU/MS research agenda vis-à-vis and with India was launched.
In February 2012, the joint declaration on Research and Innovation at the EU-India Summit was calling for the implementation of an EU-India partnership in Science and Innovation. The joint declaration was also calling for joint actions and the development of a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SIRA). A three-layer governance structure, headed by a Group of Senior Officials, supported by a GSO working group and GSO thematic groups, was set up and is tasked with the identification of thematic fields of priority interest for collaboration, which should led to massive co-investments from both sides.
In addition, Indian partners were eligible for funding under the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) and the statistics registered an increase of Indian participation in FP7 from 2007 to 2013. In total, more than 250 Indian research institutes and universities participated in more than 135 collaborative projects. As a result, India ranked four in the list of third countries participation in FP7 just behind China, Russia and the US. Taking into account the emergence of Indian as an STI power, the country was re-categorized from “developing countries” to “industrialized country” and will not be eligible for automatic funding anymore in Horizon 2020 (2014-2020). This evolution reflects the will of the European Union to deal with India on the basis of equal partnership and mutual interest.
New INDIGO activities were rooted in this constantly evolving context and were pursuing the following objectives:
The first objective was the identification of the right format for a multilateral EU-MS/AC-India funding scheme, as well as the launch of one pilot call, in order to achieve critical mass and tackle global challenges. Indeed, despite the existence of numerous bilateral schemes and that of multilateral schemes (FP7/ coordinated calls), there were not dedicated program of cooperation between these two scientific poles. A New INDIGO program would offer the chance for India to collaborate with EU MS/AC on a symmetric basis (common definition of thematic, joint selection of projects…) and would offer European researchers to access the best but few excellent researchers in India.
- Identify thematic fields for an EU-India multilateral pilot call and design the right format for this call. It was expected that the model should be appealing to both funders and applicants
- Successfully organize and launch one EU-India multilateral call for proposals
- Organize the selection of the funded projects
- Draw recommendations for future EU-India multilateral calls for proposals
The second objective was to strengthen the S&T cooperation between the EU and India in particular through a stronger participation of Indian in FP7 and other Community programmes and initiatives, as well as the promotion of bilateral EU-India Programs.
- There are numerous bilateral programs between EU MS/ AC and India to fund the mobility of students and researchers, as well as research projects. However they often lack visibility, which prevents Indian and European researchers to fully access and benefit from them. Therefore, one objective of New INDIGO was the creation of a database rehearsing bilateral and multilateral programs.
- Inform Indian researchers about FP7 funding opportunities, as well as the services (website supports, European NCPs…) available to support their project application. In order to counterbalance the absence of National Contact Points in India, New INDIGO aimed at establishing a sustainable support-network called the Indian Focal Points
- Awareness raising actions in Europe to inform European researchers about the strengths of Indian research landscape and its major stakeholders, especially through National Contact Points
- Facilitate the integration of Indian funding agencies or ministries in thematic ERA-NETs
- Support the creation of EU-India networks and reinforced existing ones through the launch of multilateral calls for proposals or through the organization of partnering events.
The third objective of the project was to support the political dialogue between Europe and India and network major stakeholders of EU-India STI collaboration, including researchers, representatives of funding agencies and ministries, students, the business community
- Provide evidences and analysis to policy-makers
- Turn the results of the policy-dialogue into lively cooperation
- Organize the EU-India STI Cooperation Days on an annual basis, networking scientists and business men to create new partnerships. On the other hand, these events would also the chance for policy-makers to bring the results of the policy-dialogue down to the targeted business and scientific communities and fine-tune their thematic priorities.
- Collaborate with existing projects and initiatives supporting EU-India collaboration
The consortium partners have a long-standing experience in international S&T cooperation and in cooperating with each other, especially through the AOUDA project (FP6), coordinated by CNRS. In 2012, New INDIGO has been granted a one-year extension to prepare the transition towards the new ERA-Nets (INNO INDIGO) and BILAT (INDIGO POLICY) with India.
New INDIGO has successfully succeeded in enlarging the initial number of consortium partners to 28 countries from 13 countries, including 5 Indian partners. The involvement and confidence of the Indian partners is considered one of the key reasons for New INDIGO success. To finish with, New INDIGO carried out a lot of activities jointly with other projects and initiatives involved in supporting EU-India STI collaboration (Euraxess links India, INDIA GATE, India SI House, EBTC, INCONTACT, EUINEC….)
Project Results:
1.3.1 Enhancing STI Cooperation between Europe and India
New INDIGO has made available a set of comprehensive and ready-to-use documents on its website, which were widely disseminated to the scientific and business communities, as well as policy-makers and National Contact Points in Europe. Some of these documents are project deliverables and can be directly consulted or downloaded from the New INDIGO website. Capacity-buildings activities such as the Focal Points network or information sessions were also set up or organized to support the participation of Indian in the EU Framework Program.
Though the impacts of the below activities are difficult to measure, it is worth noting that collaboration has steadily increased between Europe and India under the FP7, with Indian scientists participated more than 178 FP7 projects and also a good records for Indian participation in Marie Curie Actions.
Interestingly, the number of unique visitors on the New INDIGO website has steadily increased with more than 46,545 people visited New Indigo website in 2013 and using New INDIGO services. This is a good signal that the project has found its way as a reference platform in the landscape of EU-India STI collaboration.
- A database of 300 bilateral and multilateral funding opportunities, including mobility programs and doctoral programs were made available on the New INDIGO website and constantly updated. The website also offered easy links to existing partner search tools (Cordis…..).
- Publication of a comprehensive document on the Indian S&T landscape available on New INDIGO website
- Publication of “Horizon 2020 factsheets”, each of them rehearsing twenty key Indian institutes and universities for the given societal challenge. The factsheets are aligned along H2020 societal challenges and aimed at facilitating the search for Indian partners in H2020 or bilateral projects.
- In cooperation with other projects and initiatives dealing with EU-India cooperation, New INDIGO has set up the euindiacoop platform, which links to other projects and initiatives’ websites and results, hence combining efforts and multiplying the channels for dissemination.
- New INDIGO has established a network of 10 Focal Points, whose role is to promote multilateral and bilateral funding opportunities for EU-India cooperation in India. Those Focal Points have themselves organize further dissemination events and have enabled to reach an even wider research community in India.
- Launch of a European STI Platform in India, bringing together representatives from universities, research institutes and funding organizations, with a representation office in India and support their joint actions. The Platform supported EU-India collaboration by offering services to its members, increasing their visibility, as well as that of EU-India collaboration as a whole.
- 5 brokerages events have been organized in the frame of the yearly EU-India STI Cooperation Days, bringing together more than 1000 stakeholders from science and innovation. The objective was to give them the chance to build new partnerships, through direct face-to-face meetings. These brokerage events were also the chance to get informed about multilateral and bilateral funding opportunities
- Promotion of funding opportunities through social media (facebook, twitter), Awareness Raising Campaign of the European Commission
1.3.2 Establishing sustainable framework for EU-India multilateral calls for proposals
If only one call for proposals was scheduled when the project was submitted in 2009, New INDIGO has succeeded to launch four calls for proposals. In that respect, the project paved the way to a sustainable scheme for EU-India joint multilateral calls.
- Preparation of strategy document and call documents
- Launch of two New INDIGO Networking Programs (funding networking projects)
- Launch of two New INDIGO Partnership Programs (funding research projects)
The consortium prepared a strategy document as well as call documents (guidelines for applicants, guidelines for evaluators, call text) for the first New INDIGO call for proposals.
The procedures have proved easy to replicate years after years and have enabled the easy-going and rapid launch of four calls for proposals. Furthermore, the third and fourth calls funded bigger research projects and were open to the participation of the private sector. In parallel, the call procedures have been constantly adjusted to meet the lessons learnt and best practices, as well as the evolution of the New INDIGO Networking Programs (NPP) to New INDIGO Partnership Programs (research projects).
New INDIGO has established flexible and working procedures for joint EU-India multilateral call for proposals, securing the participation of funding agencies with different national regulations.
- Selection and funding of 35 EU-India projects
- Monitoring the funded projects
- Organization of the scientific ex-post evaluation of NPP1 funded projects
New INDIGO launched 4 calls for proposals and funded 22 networking and 13 research projects linking more than 130 research institutions and universities from Europe and India. It is worth noting that the fourth call for proposals also funded a project with two European SMEs from Germany and Portugal.
Moreover, results from an external evaluation showed that New INDIGO successfully created new EU-India collaborations involving scientists from excellent research institutions and universities. 35% of the funded projects were completely new collaborations and it is expected that New INDIGO created even more new collaborations, by enabling researchers to access the partners of their partners (2+1).
To finish with, the funded projects were closely monitored to assess their scientific results and the collaborations of the funded partners. The interim and final reports, as well as their presentation during the STI Cooperation days showed that most of the funded projects applied to new sources of funding to continue their collaboration. As such tend to be sustainable collaborations. The scientific ex-post evaluation of NPP1 projects assessed the scientific outputs of the funded projects as good to excellent scientific results and stressed the innovative approach of much of the projects, as a result of the interdisciplinary nature.
- Reaching to new funding agencies and creating a strong EU-Indian funding agencies network
New INDIGO has expanded the range of initial consortium members to further funding agencies and ministries, including from India, such as the Indian Department of Science and Technology (DST).
This is a good signal of the growing interest for EU-India S&T collaboration, as well as a good indication that the project succeeded to mobilize the right stakeholders.
The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) and the Academy of Finland (AKA) joined the funding committee of the second New INDIGO call for proposals (NPP2) in 2011 on water-related research. The Research Council of Norway (RCN) and the Austrian Science Funds (FWF) joined the funding committee of the third New INDIGO call for proposals (NPP3) in 2012. New INDIGO also reached to innovation players such as Oséo (funding agency supporting SMEs- FRANCE), which participated the third call and fourth call for proposals.
- Successful integration of the Indian Department of Biotechnology (DBT) in the Infect-Era call for proposals (thematic ERA-Nets)
New INDIGO established a framework for multilateral call for proposals, which was appealing to Indian funding agencies (co-definition of thematic, compulsory participation of Indian scientists…). In parallel, the project increased the confidence and interest of Indian funding agencies in ERA-Net schemes as a whole. As a result, New INDIGO facilitated the integration of Indian funding agencies to thematic ERA-Net.
In 2014, the Indian Department of Biotechnology (DBT) joined the Infect-Era call for proposals on “Development and application of new techniques to investigate the initial steps of the infection process” (thematic Era-Net on infectious diseases).
- Policy paper for the recommendations from the NPP for future actions
Based on the experience of four calls for proposals, New INDIGO has drawn conclusions on the basic principles for a sustainable scheme for joint EU-India call for proposals. The basic principles are summed up in the “Policy Paper with recommendations from the NPP for future actions”.
The main principles identified are:
- Mutual trust and interest
- Equal partnership: common selection of thematic field, joint evaluation and selection of projects
- Flexibility of procedures: compliance with national regulations; implementation through a virtual common pot, keep as many partner on board as possible.
- Consistency in rules and call calendars
- Foreseeability of the Calls: transparent calendar and thematic field agenda, especially to reach out to new actors
- Establish a platform of funders: transparent mechanisms, common decisions and possible participation based on national priorities.
As a result, New INDIGO prepared the ground for an institutionalized scheme for EU-India multilateral call for proposals. It also highlight that there is an interest from both the funding agencies and scientists for multilateral call for proposals between Europe and India.
1.3.3 Supporting the policy-dialogue between Europe and India
Under this pillar, New INDIGO prepared analytical evidences to support the EU-India policy-dialogue. Research priorities identified within the SFIC were turned into lively cooperation and were brought to interested stakeholders during the yearly edition of the EU-India STI Cooperation Days.
- Publication of a Foresight study to identify success scenarios for future EU-India collaboration. The main conclusions of this foresight study are:
o EU MS/ AC -India co-publications maps - published in 2011
o Evidences on the status-quo of EU-India cooperation in 2012
o The drivers and obstacles of EU-India collaboration are identified
o Short-term and long-term recommendations for a successful EU-India collaboration in the Horizon 2020 are identified
- Workshops to identify research priorities on Food, Agriculture, Fisheries and Biotechnology and Health organized during the EU-India STI Cooperation Days of 2009, in Delhi
- The second (NPP2) and fourth (NPP4) call for proposals turned thematic priorities identified within the SFIC-India into lively cooperation. The second New INDIGO call for proposals was implemented with the Indian Department of Science and Technology (DST) in the area of water-related research. The fourth New INDIGO call for proposals allowed for application in the area of smart grids and New Energy Materials.
- The EU-India STI Cooperation Days of 2011, 2012 and 2013 were also the chance to bring the results of the policy-dialogue down to the scientific and business communities.
Potential Impact:
1.4.1 Expected impacts
At the institutional level, New INDIGO has proved that a multilateral scheme were attractive for scientists and for funding agencies and paved the way to an institutionalized phase for EU-India scheme for multilateral calls. The project showed that such schemes were easy to implement and were attractive both to funding agencies and researchers (with high application rates for each New INDIGO calls). The long-duration of New INDIGO (with a one year extension in 2013) offered the chance to closely monitor the results and offered very good conclusion in terms of impacts of the funded-projects and excellence of the scientists funded. These results increased the confidence in multilateral schemes, provide a good set of arguments to further widen the range of funding partners, as well as enable to think the sustainability of the scheme beyond E.C funding.
The successful integration of the Indian Department of Biotechnology (DBT) into one thematic ERA-NET (2014 Infect-ERA call for proposals) has also paved the way to new form of collaboration between Europe and India and could be further extended in the future.
Secondly, New INDIGO has enabled the creation of new networks in research fields, which are global challenges and require global solutions. The first call for proposals was launched on biotechnology and health with a number of funded projects working on “infectious diseases”. The second call for proposals addressed the challenge of water-purification, while the fourth call addressed that of sustainable development, funding research projects on “smart grids” and “new energy materials”.
The monitoring of the funded projects is showing significant co-publication records between the funded partners, which in turns, is sending of good signal of the intensity of collaboration within the projects.
With India emerging has an economic and scientific power on the global stage, STI collaboration between Europe and India has become a must-have. New INDIGO has created sustainable collaborations and a lot of young scientists were involved in the funded projects. They were offered lab trainings respectively in India for European scientists and in Europe for Indian scientists.
Moreover, the multilateral frame for collaboration (at least 2+1 partners), bringing together scientists and innovators from different scientific backgrounds, offered the chance to test innovative approaches and come up with new solutions. In 2012 and 2013, the New INDIGO brought in an innovation dimension, allowing to fund research closer to the market. As a result, 2 SMEs, one from Germany and one from Portugal are receiving a grant under a New INDIGO scheme.
Last but not least, New INDIGO has actively promoted EU-India collaboration during five years and has contributed to strengthen EU-India collaboration and to establish firm links with the Indian representatives of STI research organizations. It is expected that the New INDIGO brand will create even more collaboration in the future.
1.4.2 Main dissemination activities
The permanent updated communication channels of New INDIGO were its website, as well as its Facebook and twitter pages. Besides, New INDIGO Team disseminated the project and its projects to target audiences at a number of conferences, workshops and dialogue meetings.
Over the period from 2009 to 2013, the number of website visitors as well as New IDNIGO social media audience steadily increased and almost doubled from 2012 to 2013. Moreover, a considerable share of people who accessed our website and the Facebook page were from India. This is a good signal that the project succeeded to reach the right audience. Website visitors were also from European Countries and third countries such as China, Russia, USA and Switzerland.
Secondly, the project developed systematic cooperation with other initiatives (Euraxess links India, EBTC) and projects (India SI House, EUINEC, INDIGATE), as well as with the European Commission, which in turn could further disseminate New INDIGO activities and outputs and reach to a wider audience. Together, we developed a common portal, rehearsing all the initiatives and projects supporting EU-India STI cooperation (http://www.euindiacoop.org/(si apre in una nuova finestra)). The portal was developed during the first reporting period of the project and then further updated.
Main communication materials (such as leaflets, brochure, New INDIGO business cards) were developed centrally by the project communication team (ZSI) and disseminated through national channels by the consortium members. Interesting is the fact that New INDIGO succeeded to reach to new stakeholders, who joined the project as observers and which could further spread New INDIGO opportunities, documents and information in countries which were not covered by the initial consortium (for example Finland, Norway and Belgium).
A list of dissemination activities can be found below (Template A2, list of dissemination activities).
1.4.3 Use of Foreground
While the project duration was initially from January 2009 to December 2012, the consortium started very soon to think in terms of sustainability and introduced the first discussions about the project amendment for a one-year extension during the Bilbao consortium meeting in June 2011. The Amendment brought the project duration until December 2013 and prepared the transition towards the new BILAT (INDIGO POLICY) and ERA-NET (INNO INDIGO), which were submitted in December 2012 and accepted in March 2013.
Therefore, the Final Conference of New INDIGO was organized back to back with the kick-off meetings of the INNO INDIGO and INDIGO POLICY projects in Delhi (December 2013). This was the final opportunity to disseminate New INDIGO results, lessons learnt and way forward, as well as to explore how New INDIGO results and outputs could be included in the follow-up project activities.
New INDIGO deliverables and results will still be available on the INNO Indigo and INDIGO POLICY websites. Moreover, both projects are building on the results of the New INDIGO project, and bringing the results forward.
The objectives of the INNO INDIGO project are the following:
WP1: Bringing an innovation dimension
- Pave the way for involvement of SMEs and industries in joint calls
- Consider existing clusters of excellence in EU-India STI cooperation
- Consider the regions as important and strong funding partners in EU-India STI cooperation
- Consider balanced combination of all relevant aspects of innovation for INNO INDIGO:
1) Business driven Innovation for boosting competitiveness
2) Social innovation covering societal challenges and needs
3) Inclusive innovation targeting the Indian social challenges and needs and opening new ways of collaboration as also demonstrated in the INNO INDIGO Innovation Triangle (IIT)
- Ensure a smooth transfer of all results of the information gathering in WP1 to WP2 in order to set up new generation calls
WP2: Funding
- To implement successfully three joint calls for proposals whose thematic will tackle common EU-India societal challenges
- To implement platform: raise interest of high number of funding agencies to participate in INNO INDIGO calls
- Platform: further contributing to the integration of the European Research Area by bringing new members on board and enhancing cooperation and share of good practices between stakeholders
- Platform: Discussing and finding ways how to bring together ideas from science and innovation
- To fund research and development projects close to the market and contribute to the delivery of new products and services
- To monitor and evaluate calls and research projects from funders and researchers perspective
- To develop strategic and sustainable approach to prepare and implement calls
WP3: Strategy
- Prepare the sustainability of EU-India STI collaboration after EC financing
- Prepare a pilot call for 2017
The objectives of the INDIGO policy project are the following:
WP2: Support to EU-India STI Policy-dialogue
- Supporting the coordination of STI policy initiatives between the European Commission, the European Member states and countries associated to horizon 20202 with India
- Contributing to the further development of the EU/ MS-India Joint Strategic Agenda (SA) on research and innovation
- Supporting European science organizations/ European industries with a representation office/ research centre in India and aligning their efforts
- Supporting most effective Horizon 2020 participation for Indian funding organizations
WP3: Analysis and Monitoring with a special focus on innovation
- Monitoring the EU-India participation in FP7/ Horizon 2020 and drawing lessons from specific sub programmes and supported project types as well as other relevant European programmes
- Assessing impacts and results using different quantitative as well as qualitative, presenting results and good practices to policy-makers but also to research institutions
- Giving advice on the creation of a “level playing field” in innovation with regards to cooperation EU-India
WP4: Pilot activities for joint actions supporting the Implementation of the Strategic Agenda on Research
- Providing support to the implementation of actions derived from the Strategic Agenda on Research and Innovation by implementing pilot activities in the field of biotechnology and water-research
List of Websites:
http://www.newindigo.eu/(si apre in una nuova finestra)
India has become a prominent country in Science, Technology and Innovation. The share of Indian publications almost doubled over the decade 2000-2010 and public spending in R&D increased by 40 % over the last three decades. Moreover, India is developing a pro-active policy to boost R&D private investments and to support the emergence of new products and services on the market.
In line, with the growing importance of Indian in the STI landscape, India has been quoted a strategic target country by the European Commission. The Europe-India Science and Technology Agreement signed in November 2001 and renewed in 2010 was followed by Joint declaration on Research and Innovation at the EU-India Summit of 10 February 2010, which was calling for the implementation of an EU-India partnership in Science and Innovation. The joint declaration was also calling for joint actions and the development of a Strategic Agenda for Research and Innovation (SIRA) in order to identify thematic fields of priority interest for collaboration.
However, despite the numerous bilateral agreements between EU MS/ AC and India, relationships in R&D have not been harmonized so far at the European level.
The aim of New INDIGO was to help filling these gaps and ultimately provide the most relevant framework:
• To launch and monitor multilateral calls for proposals and tackle societal challenges by achieving critical mass
• To network the scientific community and institutions of India and Europe, especially through promoting Indian participation in the EU Framework program (FP7 and Horizon 2020) but also in bilateral programs
• To support the policy dialogue between Europe and India
The project was coordinated by the French National Center for Scientific research (CNRS) from January 2009 to December 2013. New INDIGO consortium was made of 29 partners from 13 countries:
- National Center for Scientific Research, France (CNRS)
- Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India (CSIR)
- International Bureau of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research at the German Aerospace Center, Germany (DLR)
- Centre for Social Innovation, Austria (ZSI)
- Department of Biotechnology, India (DBT)
- The Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal (FCT)
- Association of Electronics and Information Technology Industries of the Basque Country, Spain (GAIA)
- Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, Turkey (TUBITAK)
- Department of Science and Technology, India (DST)
- Indian Council of Medical Research, India (ICMR)
- Indian Institute of Science, India (IISc)
- Royal Society, UK (RS)
- German Research Foundation, Germany (DFG)
- Research Councils UK, UK (RCUK)
- Academy of Finland, Finland (AKA)
- Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain (MINECO)
- Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Netherlands (KNAW)
- National Institute of Health and Medical Research, France (INSERM)
- Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation, Denmark (DASTI)
- Research Council of Norway, Norway (RCN)
- National Institute for Agricultural Research, France (INRIA)
- Euraxess links India, India
- Ministry of Higher Education and Research, France (MESR)
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs, France (MAE)
- Federal Ministry of Science and Research, Austria (BMWF)
- Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (BMBF)
Project Context and Objectives:
India is a country of growing importance in the STI landscape and is implementing an active policy to strengthen its Research and Innovation system, through the 12th five-year plan (2012-2017) and the Decade of Innovation (2010-2020).
Accordingly, India’s public spending in R&D increased by 40% over the last three decades, with India ranking 8th in terms of R&D public spending in 2012. The share of Indian publications almost doubled over the decade 2000-2010 and patent applications also steadily increased. In 2012, India ranked 3rd in terms of country destination for multinational R&D centers.
In line with India emergence in the STI landscape, a growing number of EU Member States and Associated Countries have established bilateral relations with this country. Alongside these numerous bilateral agreements, the European Union has established strong relations with India and ambitions to create an “EU-India Partnership in Research and Innovation”.
The first EU-India S&T Cooperation Agreement was signed in 2001 and renewed in 2007. It was followed by the launch of four coordinated calls, with co-investment or resources from both sides. In total more than 60m€ budget, where invested from both sides in four fields identified as areas of priority interest for collaboration: computational materials, food nutrition, solar energy and water-related challenges. In 2010, as part of a Strategic Forum for International Cooperation (SFIC) initiative, an EU-MS India Pilot Initiative (IPI) working towards a strategic EU/MS research agenda vis-à-vis and with India was launched.
In February 2012, the joint declaration on Research and Innovation at the EU-India Summit was calling for the implementation of an EU-India partnership in Science and Innovation. The joint declaration was also calling for joint actions and the development of a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SIRA). A three-layer governance structure, headed by a Group of Senior Officials, supported by a GSO working group and GSO thematic groups, was set up and is tasked with the identification of thematic fields of priority interest for collaboration, which should led to massive co-investments from both sides.
In addition, Indian partners were eligible for funding under the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) and the statistics registered an increase of Indian participation in FP7 from 2007 to 2013. In total, more than 250 Indian research institutes and universities participated in more than 135 collaborative projects. As a result, India ranked four in the list of third countries participation in FP7 just behind China, Russia and the US. Taking into account the emergence of Indian as an STI power, the country was re-categorized from “developing countries” to “industrialized country” and will not be eligible for automatic funding anymore in Horizon 2020 (2014-2020). This evolution reflects the will of the European Union to deal with India on the basis of equal partnership and mutual interest.
New INDIGO activities were rooted in this constantly evolving context and were pursuing the following objectives:
The first objective was the identification of the right format for a multilateral EU-MS/AC-India funding scheme, as well as the launch of one pilot call, in order to achieve critical mass and tackle global challenges. Indeed, despite the existence of numerous bilateral schemes and that of multilateral schemes (FP7/ coordinated calls), there were not dedicated program of cooperation between these two scientific poles. A New INDIGO program would offer the chance for India to collaborate with EU MS/AC on a symmetric basis (common definition of thematic, joint selection of projects…) and would offer European researchers to access the best but few excellent researchers in India.
- Identify thematic fields for an EU-India multilateral pilot call and design the right format for this call. It was expected that the model should be appealing to both funders and applicants
- Successfully organize and launch one EU-India multilateral call for proposals
- Organize the selection of the funded projects
- Draw recommendations for future EU-India multilateral calls for proposals
The second objective was to strengthen the S&T cooperation between the EU and India in particular through a stronger participation of Indian in FP7 and other Community programmes and initiatives, as well as the promotion of bilateral EU-India Programs.
- There are numerous bilateral programs between EU MS/ AC and India to fund the mobility of students and researchers, as well as research projects. However they often lack visibility, which prevents Indian and European researchers to fully access and benefit from them. Therefore, one objective of New INDIGO was the creation of a database rehearsing bilateral and multilateral programs.
- Inform Indian researchers about FP7 funding opportunities, as well as the services (website supports, European NCPs…) available to support their project application. In order to counterbalance the absence of National Contact Points in India, New INDIGO aimed at establishing a sustainable support-network called the Indian Focal Points
- Awareness raising actions in Europe to inform European researchers about the strengths of Indian research landscape and its major stakeholders, especially through National Contact Points
- Facilitate the integration of Indian funding agencies or ministries in thematic ERA-NETs
- Support the creation of EU-India networks and reinforced existing ones through the launch of multilateral calls for proposals or through the organization of partnering events.
The third objective of the project was to support the political dialogue between Europe and India and network major stakeholders of EU-India STI collaboration, including researchers, representatives of funding agencies and ministries, students, the business community
- Provide evidences and analysis to policy-makers
- Turn the results of the policy-dialogue into lively cooperation
- Organize the EU-India STI Cooperation Days on an annual basis, networking scientists and business men to create new partnerships. On the other hand, these events would also the chance for policy-makers to bring the results of the policy-dialogue down to the targeted business and scientific communities and fine-tune their thematic priorities.
- Collaborate with existing projects and initiatives supporting EU-India collaboration
The consortium partners have a long-standing experience in international S&T cooperation and in cooperating with each other, especially through the AOUDA project (FP6), coordinated by CNRS. In 2012, New INDIGO has been granted a one-year extension to prepare the transition towards the new ERA-Nets (INNO INDIGO) and BILAT (INDIGO POLICY) with India.
New INDIGO has successfully succeeded in enlarging the initial number of consortium partners to 28 countries from 13 countries, including 5 Indian partners. The involvement and confidence of the Indian partners is considered one of the key reasons for New INDIGO success. To finish with, New INDIGO carried out a lot of activities jointly with other projects and initiatives involved in supporting EU-India STI collaboration (Euraxess links India, INDIA GATE, India SI House, EBTC, INCONTACT, EUINEC….)
Project Results:
1.3.1 Enhancing STI Cooperation between Europe and India
New INDIGO has made available a set of comprehensive and ready-to-use documents on its website, which were widely disseminated to the scientific and business communities, as well as policy-makers and National Contact Points in Europe. Some of these documents are project deliverables and can be directly consulted or downloaded from the New INDIGO website. Capacity-buildings activities such as the Focal Points network or information sessions were also set up or organized to support the participation of Indian in the EU Framework Program.
Though the impacts of the below activities are difficult to measure, it is worth noting that collaboration has steadily increased between Europe and India under the FP7, with Indian scientists participated more than 178 FP7 projects and also a good records for Indian participation in Marie Curie Actions.
Interestingly, the number of unique visitors on the New INDIGO website has steadily increased with more than 46,545 people visited New Indigo website in 2013 and using New INDIGO services. This is a good signal that the project has found its way as a reference platform in the landscape of EU-India STI collaboration.
- A database of 300 bilateral and multilateral funding opportunities, including mobility programs and doctoral programs were made available on the New INDIGO website and constantly updated. The website also offered easy links to existing partner search tools (Cordis…..).
- Publication of a comprehensive document on the Indian S&T landscape available on New INDIGO website
- Publication of “Horizon 2020 factsheets”, each of them rehearsing twenty key Indian institutes and universities for the given societal challenge. The factsheets are aligned along H2020 societal challenges and aimed at facilitating the search for Indian partners in H2020 or bilateral projects.
- In cooperation with other projects and initiatives dealing with EU-India cooperation, New INDIGO has set up the euindiacoop platform, which links to other projects and initiatives’ websites and results, hence combining efforts and multiplying the channels for dissemination.
- New INDIGO has established a network of 10 Focal Points, whose role is to promote multilateral and bilateral funding opportunities for EU-India cooperation in India. Those Focal Points have themselves organize further dissemination events and have enabled to reach an even wider research community in India.
- Launch of a European STI Platform in India, bringing together representatives from universities, research institutes and funding organizations, with a representation office in India and support their joint actions. The Platform supported EU-India collaboration by offering services to its members, increasing their visibility, as well as that of EU-India collaboration as a whole.
- 5 brokerages events have been organized in the frame of the yearly EU-India STI Cooperation Days, bringing together more than 1000 stakeholders from science and innovation. The objective was to give them the chance to build new partnerships, through direct face-to-face meetings. These brokerage events were also the chance to get informed about multilateral and bilateral funding opportunities
- Promotion of funding opportunities through social media (facebook, twitter), Awareness Raising Campaign of the European Commission
1.3.2 Establishing sustainable framework for EU-India multilateral calls for proposals
If only one call for proposals was scheduled when the project was submitted in 2009, New INDIGO has succeeded to launch four calls for proposals. In that respect, the project paved the way to a sustainable scheme for EU-India joint multilateral calls.
- Preparation of strategy document and call documents
- Launch of two New INDIGO Networking Programs (funding networking projects)
- Launch of two New INDIGO Partnership Programs (funding research projects)
The consortium prepared a strategy document as well as call documents (guidelines for applicants, guidelines for evaluators, call text) for the first New INDIGO call for proposals.
The procedures have proved easy to replicate years after years and have enabled the easy-going and rapid launch of four calls for proposals. Furthermore, the third and fourth calls funded bigger research projects and were open to the participation of the private sector. In parallel, the call procedures have been constantly adjusted to meet the lessons learnt and best practices, as well as the evolution of the New INDIGO Networking Programs (NPP) to New INDIGO Partnership Programs (research projects).
New INDIGO has established flexible and working procedures for joint EU-India multilateral call for proposals, securing the participation of funding agencies with different national regulations.
- Selection and funding of 35 EU-India projects
- Monitoring the funded projects
- Organization of the scientific ex-post evaluation of NPP1 funded projects
New INDIGO launched 4 calls for proposals and funded 22 networking and 13 research projects linking more than 130 research institutions and universities from Europe and India. It is worth noting that the fourth call for proposals also funded a project with two European SMEs from Germany and Portugal.
Moreover, results from an external evaluation showed that New INDIGO successfully created new EU-India collaborations involving scientists from excellent research institutions and universities. 35% of the funded projects were completely new collaborations and it is expected that New INDIGO created even more new collaborations, by enabling researchers to access the partners of their partners (2+1).
To finish with, the funded projects were closely monitored to assess their scientific results and the collaborations of the funded partners. The interim and final reports, as well as their presentation during the STI Cooperation days showed that most of the funded projects applied to new sources of funding to continue their collaboration. As such tend to be sustainable collaborations. The scientific ex-post evaluation of NPP1 projects assessed the scientific outputs of the funded projects as good to excellent scientific results and stressed the innovative approach of much of the projects, as a result of the interdisciplinary nature.
- Reaching to new funding agencies and creating a strong EU-Indian funding agencies network
New INDIGO has expanded the range of initial consortium members to further funding agencies and ministries, including from India, such as the Indian Department of Science and Technology (DST).
This is a good signal of the growing interest for EU-India S&T collaboration, as well as a good indication that the project succeeded to mobilize the right stakeholders.
The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) and the Academy of Finland (AKA) joined the funding committee of the second New INDIGO call for proposals (NPP2) in 2011 on water-related research. The Research Council of Norway (RCN) and the Austrian Science Funds (FWF) joined the funding committee of the third New INDIGO call for proposals (NPP3) in 2012. New INDIGO also reached to innovation players such as Oséo (funding agency supporting SMEs- FRANCE), which participated the third call and fourth call for proposals.
- Successful integration of the Indian Department of Biotechnology (DBT) in the Infect-Era call for proposals (thematic ERA-Nets)
New INDIGO established a framework for multilateral call for proposals, which was appealing to Indian funding agencies (co-definition of thematic, compulsory participation of Indian scientists…). In parallel, the project increased the confidence and interest of Indian funding agencies in ERA-Net schemes as a whole. As a result, New INDIGO facilitated the integration of Indian funding agencies to thematic ERA-Net.
In 2014, the Indian Department of Biotechnology (DBT) joined the Infect-Era call for proposals on “Development and application of new techniques to investigate the initial steps of the infection process” (thematic Era-Net on infectious diseases).
- Policy paper for the recommendations from the NPP for future actions
Based on the experience of four calls for proposals, New INDIGO has drawn conclusions on the basic principles for a sustainable scheme for joint EU-India call for proposals. The basic principles are summed up in the “Policy Paper with recommendations from the NPP for future actions”.
The main principles identified are:
- Mutual trust and interest
- Equal partnership: common selection of thematic field, joint evaluation and selection of projects
- Flexibility of procedures: compliance with national regulations; implementation through a virtual common pot, keep as many partner on board as possible.
- Consistency in rules and call calendars
- Foreseeability of the Calls: transparent calendar and thematic field agenda, especially to reach out to new actors
- Establish a platform of funders: transparent mechanisms, common decisions and possible participation based on national priorities.
As a result, New INDIGO prepared the ground for an institutionalized scheme for EU-India multilateral call for proposals. It also highlight that there is an interest from both the funding agencies and scientists for multilateral call for proposals between Europe and India.
1.3.3 Supporting the policy-dialogue between Europe and India
Under this pillar, New INDIGO prepared analytical evidences to support the EU-India policy-dialogue. Research priorities identified within the SFIC were turned into lively cooperation and were brought to interested stakeholders during the yearly edition of the EU-India STI Cooperation Days.
- Publication of a Foresight study to identify success scenarios for future EU-India collaboration. The main conclusions of this foresight study are:
o EU MS/ AC -India co-publications maps - published in 2011
o Evidences on the status-quo of EU-India cooperation in 2012
o The drivers and obstacles of EU-India collaboration are identified
o Short-term and long-term recommendations for a successful EU-India collaboration in the Horizon 2020 are identified
- Workshops to identify research priorities on Food, Agriculture, Fisheries and Biotechnology and Health organized during the EU-India STI Cooperation Days of 2009, in Delhi
- The second (NPP2) and fourth (NPP4) call for proposals turned thematic priorities identified within the SFIC-India into lively cooperation. The second New INDIGO call for proposals was implemented with the Indian Department of Science and Technology (DST) in the area of water-related research. The fourth New INDIGO call for proposals allowed for application in the area of smart grids and New Energy Materials.
- The EU-India STI Cooperation Days of 2011, 2012 and 2013 were also the chance to bring the results of the policy-dialogue down to the scientific and business communities.
Potential Impact:
1.4.1 Expected impacts
At the institutional level, New INDIGO has proved that a multilateral scheme were attractive for scientists and for funding agencies and paved the way to an institutionalized phase for EU-India scheme for multilateral calls. The project showed that such schemes were easy to implement and were attractive both to funding agencies and researchers (with high application rates for each New INDIGO calls). The long-duration of New INDIGO (with a one year extension in 2013) offered the chance to closely monitor the results and offered very good conclusion in terms of impacts of the funded-projects and excellence of the scientists funded. These results increased the confidence in multilateral schemes, provide a good set of arguments to further widen the range of funding partners, as well as enable to think the sustainability of the scheme beyond E.C funding.
The successful integration of the Indian Department of Biotechnology (DBT) into one thematic ERA-NET (2014 Infect-ERA call for proposals) has also paved the way to new form of collaboration between Europe and India and could be further extended in the future.
Secondly, New INDIGO has enabled the creation of new networks in research fields, which are global challenges and require global solutions. The first call for proposals was launched on biotechnology and health with a number of funded projects working on “infectious diseases”. The second call for proposals addressed the challenge of water-purification, while the fourth call addressed that of sustainable development, funding research projects on “smart grids” and “new energy materials”.
The monitoring of the funded projects is showing significant co-publication records between the funded partners, which in turns, is sending of good signal of the intensity of collaboration within the projects.
With India emerging has an economic and scientific power on the global stage, STI collaboration between Europe and India has become a must-have. New INDIGO has created sustainable collaborations and a lot of young scientists were involved in the funded projects. They were offered lab trainings respectively in India for European scientists and in Europe for Indian scientists.
Moreover, the multilateral frame for collaboration (at least 2+1 partners), bringing together scientists and innovators from different scientific backgrounds, offered the chance to test innovative approaches and come up with new solutions. In 2012 and 2013, the New INDIGO brought in an innovation dimension, allowing to fund research closer to the market. As a result, 2 SMEs, one from Germany and one from Portugal are receiving a grant under a New INDIGO scheme.
Last but not least, New INDIGO has actively promoted EU-India collaboration during five years and has contributed to strengthen EU-India collaboration and to establish firm links with the Indian representatives of STI research organizations. It is expected that the New INDIGO brand will create even more collaboration in the future.
1.4.2 Main dissemination activities
The permanent updated communication channels of New INDIGO were its website, as well as its Facebook and twitter pages. Besides, New INDIGO Team disseminated the project and its projects to target audiences at a number of conferences, workshops and dialogue meetings.
Over the period from 2009 to 2013, the number of website visitors as well as New IDNIGO social media audience steadily increased and almost doubled from 2012 to 2013. Moreover, a considerable share of people who accessed our website and the Facebook page were from India. This is a good signal that the project succeeded to reach the right audience. Website visitors were also from European Countries and third countries such as China, Russia, USA and Switzerland.
Secondly, the project developed systematic cooperation with other initiatives (Euraxess links India, EBTC) and projects (India SI House, EUINEC, INDIGATE), as well as with the European Commission, which in turn could further disseminate New INDIGO activities and outputs and reach to a wider audience. Together, we developed a common portal, rehearsing all the initiatives and projects supporting EU-India STI cooperation (http://www.euindiacoop.org/(si apre in una nuova finestra)). The portal was developed during the first reporting period of the project and then further updated.
Main communication materials (such as leaflets, brochure, New INDIGO business cards) were developed centrally by the project communication team (ZSI) and disseminated through national channels by the consortium members. Interesting is the fact that New INDIGO succeeded to reach to new stakeholders, who joined the project as observers and which could further spread New INDIGO opportunities, documents and information in countries which were not covered by the initial consortium (for example Finland, Norway and Belgium).
A list of dissemination activities can be found below (Template A2, list of dissemination activities).
1.4.3 Use of Foreground
While the project duration was initially from January 2009 to December 2012, the consortium started very soon to think in terms of sustainability and introduced the first discussions about the project amendment for a one-year extension during the Bilbao consortium meeting in June 2011. The Amendment brought the project duration until December 2013 and prepared the transition towards the new BILAT (INDIGO POLICY) and ERA-NET (INNO INDIGO), which were submitted in December 2012 and accepted in March 2013.
Therefore, the Final Conference of New INDIGO was organized back to back with the kick-off meetings of the INNO INDIGO and INDIGO POLICY projects in Delhi (December 2013). This was the final opportunity to disseminate New INDIGO results, lessons learnt and way forward, as well as to explore how New INDIGO results and outputs could be included in the follow-up project activities.
New INDIGO deliverables and results will still be available on the INNO Indigo and INDIGO POLICY websites. Moreover, both projects are building on the results of the New INDIGO project, and bringing the results forward.
The objectives of the INNO INDIGO project are the following:
WP1: Bringing an innovation dimension
- Pave the way for involvement of SMEs and industries in joint calls
- Consider existing clusters of excellence in EU-India STI cooperation
- Consider the regions as important and strong funding partners in EU-India STI cooperation
- Consider balanced combination of all relevant aspects of innovation for INNO INDIGO:
1) Business driven Innovation for boosting competitiveness
2) Social innovation covering societal challenges and needs
3) Inclusive innovation targeting the Indian social challenges and needs and opening new ways of collaboration as also demonstrated in the INNO INDIGO Innovation Triangle (IIT)
- Ensure a smooth transfer of all results of the information gathering in WP1 to WP2 in order to set up new generation calls
WP2: Funding
- To implement successfully three joint calls for proposals whose thematic will tackle common EU-India societal challenges
- To implement platform: raise interest of high number of funding agencies to participate in INNO INDIGO calls
- Platform: further contributing to the integration of the European Research Area by bringing new members on board and enhancing cooperation and share of good practices between stakeholders
- Platform: Discussing and finding ways how to bring together ideas from science and innovation
- To fund research and development projects close to the market and contribute to the delivery of new products and services
- To monitor and evaluate calls and research projects from funders and researchers perspective
- To develop strategic and sustainable approach to prepare and implement calls
WP3: Strategy
- Prepare the sustainability of EU-India STI collaboration after EC financing
- Prepare a pilot call for 2017
The objectives of the INDIGO policy project are the following:
WP2: Support to EU-India STI Policy-dialogue
- Supporting the coordination of STI policy initiatives between the European Commission, the European Member states and countries associated to horizon 20202 with India
- Contributing to the further development of the EU/ MS-India Joint Strategic Agenda (SA) on research and innovation
- Supporting European science organizations/ European industries with a representation office/ research centre in India and aligning their efforts
- Supporting most effective Horizon 2020 participation for Indian funding organizations
WP3: Analysis and Monitoring with a special focus on innovation
- Monitoring the EU-India participation in FP7/ Horizon 2020 and drawing lessons from specific sub programmes and supported project types as well as other relevant European programmes
- Assessing impacts and results using different quantitative as well as qualitative, presenting results and good practices to policy-makers but also to research institutions
- Giving advice on the creation of a “level playing field” in innovation with regards to cooperation EU-India
WP4: Pilot activities for joint actions supporting the Implementation of the Strategic Agenda on Research
- Providing support to the implementation of actions derived from the Strategic Agenda on Research and Innovation by implementing pilot activities in the field of biotechnology and water-research
List of Websites:
http://www.newindigo.eu/(si apre in una nuova finestra)
