IIT-Madras renews ties with RWTH Aachen University in Berlin Germany

Updated on: Friday, April 12, 2013

IIT-Madras has renewed ties with RWTH Aachen University in Berlin, Germany. The network between the German university and the Indo-German Centre for Sustainability in IIT-Madras is expected to give a fillip to collaborative research between the two countries, through the recently-sanctioned department of science and technology (DST) project.

The Rs5.33 crore project is titled 'Building an International Research Network on Sustainability to Enhance Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change'. There is corresponding support from DAAD of Germany under its 'New Passage to India' programme for up to 2.8 million to enable German scientists to work on collaborative projects with IIT Madras.

IIT-Madras director Bhaskar Ramamurthi signed a memorandum of understanding with rector of RWTH Aachen University Ernst Schmachtenberg, in the presence of the Indian ministers for human resource development and science, technology and earth sciences, and the minister for education and research of Germany, on April 10.

"The MoU will help us to work on new projects in addition to the project funded by the department of science and technology," said professor Sudhir Chella Rajan, centre co-ordinator of the Indo-German Centre for Sustainability (IGCS) at IIT-Madras.

Over the next three years, IGCS will identify and carry out, with the collaboration of German partners, five research projects in energy, land use, waste and water around sustainability challenges that will be exacerbated by climate change. The projects will focus on sustaining urban water bodies and improving public sanitation, ensuring local air quality, improving access to energy services, setting up a framework for sustainable urban and peri-urban land-use, and helping frame sustainable climate policy with emphasis on integrated solutions for climate adaptation.

Professor Bhaskar Ramamurthi said, "This is a unique collaboration in a very important and critical field involving German and Indian scientists. Activities at the IGCS will benefit from cross-national and interdisciplinary insights." A key output of the centre will be the building of a global technology watch system with a specific emphasis on climate-resilient urban and peri-urban environments in South Asia. He added that courses and degrees in IIT-Madras will increasingly reflect the focus on sustainability science.

IIT-Madras renews ties with RWTH Aachen University in Berlin Germany

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