Tripathi named co-chair of AAU Task Force on Expanding U.S.-India University Partnerships

President Satish K. Tripathi is among AAU leaders named as co-chairs of a new Association of American Universities task force to study expanding research and higher education partnerships between the United States and India.

Venu Govindaraju, vice president for research and economic development, has been named a member of the task force, which was created in coordination with the Biden administration’s U.S.-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET). iCET seeks to grow technological and industrial collaboration between the two nations.

The AAU task force will meet monthly to determine key focus areas for bilateral research and education cooperation, identify existing programs that could provide blueprints for future partnerships and formulate strategies on how best to move forward.

Other co-chairs of the AAU Task Force on Expanding United States-India University Partnerships are Neeli Bendapudi, president, The Pennsylvania State University; Robert J. Jones, chancellor, University of Illinois Urbana-Campaign; Pradeep K. Khosla, chancellor, University of California San Diego; and Sunil Kumar, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, Johns Hopkins University. Kumar will become president of Tufts University on July 1.

Task force members include administrators at AAU institutions including MIT, Vanderbilt University, Purdue University and the University of Chicago.

“It is an honor to be named to the AAU Task Force on Expanding United States-India University Partnerships,” Tripathi said. “As we forge and strengthen research and education partnerships with our colleagues in India, we will do so with an eye to bringing the benefits of this binational collaboration to our respective countries and our broader global society — all in service of the greater good.

“I look forward to helping cultivate these productive partnerships with our Indian higher education counterparts, and to building on the work we are doing at the University at Buffalo and across the AAU.”

Govindaraju noted that international collaboration in science and technology is “paramount in our collective efforts to tackle society’s most pressing global challenges.”

“This historic task force will bring together leading research institutions from the U.S. and India, such as the India Institutes of Technology, to promote technological and industrial innovation, as well as educational cooperation,” he said.

AAU President Barbara R. Snyder also stressed the importance of international collaboration. “It is nearly impossible in today’s world to make advancements in scientific research and technology without international collaboration and cooperation,” Snyder said. “This is why the Association of American Universities is proud to lead this effort to strengthen relationships between leading U.S. and Indian research universities and to lay the groundwork for shared future scientific and economic success.”

UB has long been collaborating with Indian universities. The university last May hosted the UB-Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) UB-Indo Workshop focusing on the development of joint projects relating to nanomaterials.

During the workshop, UB and six institutes of higher learning from India signed a five-year memorandum of understanding in which the institutes agree to collaborate in educational and research fields “that are relevant to the academic, scientific, industrial, social, and cultural interests and needs” of the counties involved. Those fields include, but are not limited to, “nanomaterials and nanotechnology, biotechnology, advanced sensors, photonics and cyber-physical systems including artificial intelligence,” the agreement states.

And just last month, UB partnered with the Indian Institutes of Technology to create joint centers of excellence: IIT Jodhpur (AI and data science), IIT Delhi (quantum photonics), IIT Kanpur (biosciences and biotechnology) and IIT (BHU) Varanasi (nanomaterials).

UB maintains institutional partnerships with 13 universities in India, including the Indian Institute of Information Technology and the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, Bombay and Hyderabad.