BT leads consortium to drive technology transfer between India and the UK

BT is leading a consortium of 22 industry and academic partners to launch the India-UK Advanced Technology Centre (IU-ATC). This research and innovation centre will drive collaborative research programmes and technology transfer between the UK and India. The consortium has already secured over $3 million to establish the first ever India-UK virtual graduate research school, which will support collaborative PhD and Post doctorate projects and a programme of exchange visits within the IU-ATC consortium.

Speaking on the programme’s strengths, Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala of partner school India Institute of Technology said, “With the creation of the IU-ATC, Indian PhD students can now collaborate in a global, virtual platform, to share innovative research concepts among an elite grouping of UK and Indian academic institutions. The global connectivity of this virtual consortium will ensure the rapid transfer of ideas and technology with the aim of creating breakthrough NGN and ICT research.”

The IU-ATC will conduct breakthrough research into current and next generation fixed and wireless communications, with the aim of becoming a global Centre of Excellence for next generation network (NGN) and ICT research. Outputs will include the development of new services and technology solutions and the filing of viable patents, as well as the commercial exploitation of research through licensing and spinning out start-up companies.

Matt Bross, Group Chief Technology Officer at BT, said, "The IU-ATC will accelerate competitive technology and knowledge transfer between the UK and India, as well as ensuring stronger collaborations between industry and academic institutions in both countries. The launch of the IU-ATC is a result of BT’s open approach to innovation – an approach that unleashes innovation beyond the boundaries of BT and enables us to harness the energy and creativity of the best and brightest minds globally.”

The IU-ATC’s UK academic lead, Professor. Gerard Parr from the University of Ulster, said, “The IU-ATC has been set up to establish, for the first time, the support infrastructure and creative sponsorship opportunities that will enable successful collaboration between Britain and India’s academic institutions, government and industry in general. The long-term success of this kind of large scale initiative is dependent upon the support received from industry, and we have had excellent engagement and support from BT, Indian organisations and the British and Indian governments.”

Notes to editors:

The IU-ATC's PhDs are aimed at UK and Indian PhD candidates who will be selected by the participating IU-ATC universities in India and the UK through the normal university selection process. Successful candidates will then be registered as PhD students at the grant holding IU-ATC University. Upon completion of their period of research and the submission and successful defending of their thesis, the students will be awarded PhD degrees from the university that they originally registered with.
The areas of PhD research are consistent with IU-ATC's areas of strategic research and innovation for India as well as the UK. It is expected that the students will spend time at both UK and Indian universities and do industrial placements with the IU-ATC industry partners.

The UK academic and industrial partners are:
• University of Ulster (Academic Lead - Professor Gerard Parr)
• BT (Industry Lead - Nader Azarmi)
• University College London
• University of St Andrews, Scotland
• University of Surrey
• Queen Mary, University of London
• University of Southampton
• University of Cambridge
• University of Lancaster
• University of Bristol
• University of Birmingham
• Intergence Systems, UK

The Indian academic and industrial partners are:

• Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (Academic Lead- Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala)
• Infosys Technologies Ltd (Industry Lead – Subu Goparaju)
• BT India
• Wipro Technologies,
• Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
• Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
• Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai
• Sasken Communications
• Midas Communications Technologies
• NMSWorks Software Ltd
• Tejas Networks