Newton workshops success

Our partnership with the British Council led to six successful Newton Bhabha Researcher Links workshops in 2016.

Over 200 scientists from the UK and India shared their cutting-edge research to tackle global challenges such as water, energy, sustainability and antimicrobial resistance in a series of Newton-Bhabha workshops held during 2016.

These workshops were jointly funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry and the British Council under the Newton-Bhabha UK-India Newton Researcher Link Workshop, IIT Madras, 1–4 November 2016 Programme. The programme provides chemists in both India and the UK with an excellent foundation to build strong and sustainable relationships, enabling knowledge exchange, as well as addressing global challenges.

Most participants from the UK and India were extremely positive about the workshop proceedings. They were keen to continue their interactions beyond the realm of the immediate exchanges and engage in strong research partnerships. "The workshops are a great way to connect young researchers between the two countries. I’m impressed with the quality of research coming from the younger generation of researchers in India," observed one UK workshop mentor.

The workshops were successfully co-ordinated by principal investigators from leading universities in the UK (Cambridge, Nottingham, Cardiff, Birmingham, Plymouth and Bangor) and India (IIT Delhi, IIT Madras, CSIR-IMTECH, M.G University, IIT Mandi and B.S. Abdur Rahman University). They focused on topics such as antimicrobial resistance, bio-materials for water purification, catalysis for sustainability, nano-materials for energy and air pollution.

Although the core format of the workshops remained the same, some co-ordinators explored different ways to engage and share information. Anshu Bhardwaj from IMTECH, who co-ordinated the Newton workshop on Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) in Chandigarh, produced a special booklet to simplify the issues of AMR for school students and brochures for the research community, which was very well received.

The Royal Society of Chemistry also organised satellite meetings around these Newton workshops in the National Physical Laboratory in Delhi, National Environmental Engineering and Research Institute in Nagpur and National Institute of Technology at Trichy, which attracted 500 participants in all.

Our partnership with the British Council will continue in 2017, supporting the next round of Newton Researchers Links workshops.

This story appears as part of the February edition of our India Newsletter.