Feb 7, 2007, 16:54 GMT
New Delhi - India and the European Union decided to embark on joint scientific projects, including those in strategic fields, after holding their first ministerial science conference in the Indian capital New Delhi on Wednesday.
India also signed a pact with the EU to participate in the proposed Facility-for-Antiproton-and-Ion-Research (FAIR) project aimed at understanding the tiniest particles in the universe.
'The joint call for research with the EU is a historic breakthrough,' said India's Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal after signing a joint declaration with Germany's Education and Research Minister Annette Schavan and the European Commissioner for Science and Research, Janez Potocnik.
The three leaders had chaired the meeting attended by 37 delegates from all EU member nations including science ministers from Portugal, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Poland.
India's Science Ministry said the conference had 'underlined the benefits of joint or coordinated calls for proposals in strategically important research fields of mutual interest.'
The declaration titled the 'The New Delhi Communique' recommended the setting up of a number of joint mechanisms for networking innovation systems in various regions of India and Europe and promised the launch of a new programme for promoting science and technology collaboration with joint funding.
'The communique is an important document and a milestone in the India-EU relationship,' Schavan said, adding that there existed a 'window of opportunity' to significantly increase bilateral cooperation.
'That this is the first time EU countries are holding a science conference outside the continent shows that India is an important partner for us,' she said.
Sibal said India would contribute five million euros annually over the next seven years, besides the other programmes that came under the EU's seventh framework programme (FP7).
The EU and India are already cooperating in the fusion reactor project ITER, the world's largest particle physics laboratory, CERN, as well as the European satellite navigation project GALILEO.
Sibal told reporters that India and the EU were looking at collaboration in areas like nano-technology, nano-biotechnology and advanced materials and would prepare a roadmap to be submitted at the annual India-EU summit in November.
Wednesday's conference is to be followed by the EU-India science icons meeting on Thursday which would be addressed by Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam.
World-renowned European scientists were to interact with 400 Indian research scholars and 600 pupils at the meeting.
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