SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

---

INSTEC – a national network centre for Indian-Swedish Cooperation on Technical Research and Education

Contact person: Mr. Göran Baurne, Dept. of Land and Water Resources Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Phone: +46 (0)8 7908624

Short information on INSTEC: http://www.sasnet.lu.se/instec.pdf

In October 2002, a delegation from Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, headed by the President Anders Flodström and the Vice-President for International Affairs Ramon Wyss, travelled to India in order to deepen academic ties with India. The delegation visited a number of government agencies, universities, institutions and enterprises in the public and private sectors of the Indian economy. Read the KTH report from the India tour (as a pdf-file).

As a result of this contact journey, an initiative was launched to create a joint Indo-Swedish Centre for collaboration on technical research and education (with the acronym INSTEC), involving a network of partners from Swedish universities and industry cooperating with Indian partners. Financial support was given by the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems, VINNOVA.
The efforts were facilitated by the Indo-Swedish MoU that was signed by the Indian Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, and his Swedish counterpart Leif Pagrotsky in December 2005. The MoU focused on efforts to promote joint research in frontier areas such as IT and biotechnology, as also environment-related technologies, and giving VINNOVA the task to develop applied research projects in biotechnology and ICT-technology (especially E-health and E-governance) with participation of both Indian and Swedish researchers and private companies. Read the Indo-Swedish MoU from December 2005.

At the same time, December 2005, a formal proposal to establish INSTEC was presented by Prof. Ramon Wyss. The proposal suggested that the centre should be placed at one of the partner universities. The aims for INSTEC were mentioned: – Three year programme grants for research (including Post-Docs and Ph-students from industry); –Two year grants for education ; – Planning grants ; and – Support to Swedish participation in Indo-Swedish EU-research projects. Support may also be given for workshops, seminars, conferences etc. Read the December 2005 INSTEC proposal (as a pdf-file)

The Swedish partners within the INSTEC network then visited India in June 2006 as a fact-finding mission to pursue the possibilities for Indo–Swedish cooperation. The purpose of the visit was to establish direct contacts and explore collaboration interest/possibilities with a few key individuals/institutions, in the area of Sustainable Development and Environmental Technology. Members of the Swedish mission were Dr. Ramon Wyss, Vice President, Royal Institute of Technology, Prof. Karin Andersson, Vice President, Chalmers University of Technology, Mr. Göran Westerström, Dean, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden, Prof. Seshadri Seetharaman, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology, Prof. Vladimir Cvetkovic, Dept. of Land & Water Resources Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology, and Mr. Göran Baurne. Read the fact-finding mission report, titled ”INDIAN-SWEDISH COLLABORATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND
ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY.

INSTEC delegation to India in April 2008. From left to right: Professors Lars Öberg, Umeå University, Lars-Christer Lundin, Uppsala University, Göran Baurne, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, and Björn Karlsson, LTH, Lund University at the back, with Prof. Baboo M. Nair of LTH, Lund University, and Prof Ramon Wyss of Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm in the front.

During 2007, the work to strengthen INSTEC has been going on. This includes setting up an INSTEC platform at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, to establish an Indian network and centre for environmental technology, and plan for a workshop to be held in collaboration with INSTEC’s Indian partners in April/May 2008.
In order to strenghten the work, INSTEC plans to set up a platform at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, to establish an Indian network and a centre for environmental technology, a delegation from the INSTEC member institutions visited India in March-April 2008. At the same time the tour was organised in the form of a Mobile Workshop, held at three different locations, Hyderabad, Pune and New Delhi. The workshop focused on the aspect of sustainable urban development, comprising system and technology aspects. Sustainable urban development comprises areas of energy, transportation, water, sewage, waste and ecosystem services. The delegation also visited Kerala, and had meetings with the KSCSTE-Kerala State Council for Science Technology and Environment.
Read the complete report from the 2008 INSTEC tour to India.

INSTEC Partners 2008

The following universities have joined the network:
Lund University (LU), www.lu.se
Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH), www.bth.se
Linköping University (LIU), www.liu.se
Stockholm University (SU), www.su.se
Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), www.kth.se
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), www.slu.se
Uppsala University (UU), www.uu.se
Umeå University (UMU), www.umu.se
Luleå University of Technology (LTU). www.ltu.se
IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, www.ivl.se has also become a member of the network. INSTEC’s aim is not only to include universities and institutes but also industry and government as well as non-government organisations.