EU-India Innovation Platform Launched in New Delhi
The European Union launched an Innovation Platform in New Delhi that brought together European Innovation actors active in India, to foster EU-India innovation partnerships through joint initiatives and actions under a ‘European banner’ that will connect and support European researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs.
This initiative is expected to increase the impact of European Member States’ innovation activities in India and enable bilateral access to India and Europe for innovators and entrepreneurs.
Innovators from India and Europe will be able to work together on global challenges such as water scarcity, climate change, food and energy security.
“The EU will engage in a dialogue with India to see how both sides can take actions to enhance the EU-India innovation partnership as our leaders mandated to do in October 2017. Engaging together in innovation is investing in the future and speed up the need to find solutions to the real-world problems,” said Signe Ratso, Deputy Director General, Research and Innovation, European Commission. She added that the EU-India Incubators and Accelerators Network launched in Bangalore would create synergies and co-create new innovation to tackle challenges both regions are facing.
“Expanding the EU-India strategic partnership with the innovation dimension, through the creation of this Innovation Platform, will strengthen further and modernise the cooperation between Europe and India. He added that this Platform will also support and speed up the commitments which the EU and India have taken in the areas of clean energy, circular energy, water partnership or sustainable urbanisation and smart cities,” said Tomasz Kozlowski, Ambassador of the European Union to India and Bhutan.
“The EU is now committed to pursue the dialogue with India both at the level of the innovation actors from private sector and public sector to see how, for example, co-working space for European starts-ups in India could be organised, co-organise European start-up events in India and bring Indian start-ups to Europe and advocate better innovation framework conditions for European innovators to the Government of India,” according to a statement from the delegation.
A panel consisting of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Department of Biotechnology for this occasion represented by BIRAC (the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, a Government of India enterprise) NITI Aayog and Invest India, outlined the ecosystem in India and the role and modalities for international cooperation on innovation.
Over the coming months, one can expect to see an increase in European presence in India in the area of Innovation.
