Two New Collaborations with India
09/13/2025Getting Indo-German research projects off the ground: This is the aim of a joint programme of the Indian Ministry of Education and the German Federal Foreign Office. The University of Würzburg is represented with two projects.
India has become an increasingly important strategic partner for German universities, which is reflected in the growing number of Indo-German cooperation programmes. One of these is the SPARC-GIANT programme, an initiative jointly funded by the Indian Ministry of Education and the German Federal Foreign Office. SPARC in this case stands for Scheme for Promotion Academic Research & Collaboration. The programme is run jointly by the DAAD and the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT KGP). In the current round of this programme, twelve Indo-German research projects have now been approved - selected from 85 applications from Germany and 92 from India. Two of them are based at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU):
1. Indo-German Research Partnership on Nanosystems
Functional nanosystems are at the centre of one of the projects. JMU is cooperating with the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram (IISER TVM). The two institutions are planning to set up a double master's degree programme that combines the scientific strengths of both institutions. JMU will contribute its expertise in the fields of supramolecular chemistry, nanomaterials and light-matter interaction from the Faculties of Physics and Chemistry and combine this with IISER TVM's internationally recognised research in the natural sciences. The two institutions are planning to set up a double master's degree programme that combines the scientific strengths of both institutions.
2. Health Innovations to combat Tuberculosis
New therapies for the treatment of mycobacterial infections, such as tuberculosis, are at the centre of the second project. Cooperation partners in this case are the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Indore and the Faculty of Medicine at JMU, represented by the Chair of Anatomy and Cell Biology II. As part of exchange programmes and joint laboratory internships, the participants will gain insights into the latest medical techniques; at conferences and seminars, they will deal with ethical issues relating to research, and science communication will also be part of their training.
