JICA | International Relation

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

About the Program

IITH has a very unique collaboration with Japanese universities and industries. The FRIENDSHIP (Future Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad to Enhance Network Development with Scholarship) FRIENDSHIP Project aims to contribute to the further development in the educational and research activities of IITH through the world-class research network between IITH and higher education institutions & industrial clusters of Japan, whereby both can establish educational and research excellence in the field of science, technology and engineering in the future.

Project Overview

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) started the “The Project for Future Researchers at IITH to Enhance Network Development with Scholarship of Japan” (FRIENDSHIP Project) on 2nd January 2011 for a period of 8 years till 31st March 2020 . Under this first phase 116 IITH graduates received postgraduate scholarships in Japan and 33 of them already worked in Japanese universities and industries. IITH applied overall 51 numbers of patents under the project It resulted in the signing of 56 MOUs, 72 joint publications (often at high impact journals), the attainment of research funds including large scale ones, and the increased number of students who obtained internship and/or employment opportunities at Japanese companies. In sum, the Project produced a number of excellent achievements in 8 years.
After the success of phase 1 to sustain the momentum built by the Project, the FRIENDSHIP 2.0 project was launched in December 2021

Purpose & Activities

The purpose of the FRIENDSHIP 2 project is to establish a sustainable platform for academic and industrial collaborations between India and Japan at IITH, expecting that human resources produced through the platform will continuously contribute to academic and industrial development both in India and Japan.

The FRIENDSHIP 2.0 project now offers IITH-Japan FRIENDSHIP Scholarship 2.0 for doctoral study at Japanese universities, exclusively for graduates from master’s programs of IITH in science and technology. The scholarship aims to establish sustainable academic and industrial research collaborations between India and Japan through promoting joint research, joint supervision, and other joint activities during grantees’ doctoral study in Japan as trainees of “the JICA long-term training program”.

A program that provides trainees with opportunities to pursue higher degrees at Japanese universities. FRIENDSHIP Scholarship 2.0 has its purpose and activities, following the regulations of the JICA long-term training program.

A final 10 students were selected in 2022. Nine of the successful applicants were enrolled in October 2022, and one in April 2023. Some students will enroll in the doctoral course after six months as research students, while others will directly enrol in the doctoral course to begin their research FRIENDSHIP 2.0 also offers Research Grant. The FRIENDSHIP 2.0 Research Grant aims to enhance sustainable collaboration between IIT Hyderabad (IITH) and academic institutions and/or industries in Japan in association with the FRIENDSHIP 2.0 Scholarship. Establishing academic collaboration including collaborative degree programs through a combination of research grants and long-term training programs is also one of the purposes of this grant.

FRIENDSHIP 2.0 Research Grant offers two kinds of grants in science and technology, namely (AC) academic collaboration and (IC) industry-university collaboration.

The list of Joint Research Granted in 2022

ID	PI Name	PI Department	Research topic	Co-PI Name	Co-PI University	Co-PI Department
1	Bhargava Anamika	Biotechnology	Challenging the paradigm: activating T-type calcium channel isoform Cav3.1 for breast cancer therapeutics	Maturana Andres Daniel	Nagoya University	Laboratory of Animal Cell Physiology, Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences
2	PANDA TARUN KANTI	Chemistry	Atom Economic Hydroboration of C X Unsaturated Bonds as Gre en Method for Organic Synthesis	Tsurugi Hayato	Osaka University	Graduate School of Engineering Science
3	Ganesan Prabu Sankar	Chemistry	Organo Gold(I) Molecules to Materials	Tsutsumi Osamu	Ritsumeikan University	Applied Chemistry
4	Chatterjee Pritha	Civil Engineering/Adjunct faculty of Climate Change	Microalgae-microbial fuel cell (mMFC): an integrated process for removal of xenobiotics in sewage and simultaneous electricity generation	Matsuura Norihisa	Kanazawa University	Faculty of Geosciences and Civil Engineering
5	Abhinav Kumar	Electrical Engineering	Enhancing User Mobility in Cellular networks through Machine Learning	Yamaguchi (Shigetomi) Rie	University of Tokyo	Social ICT Research Center, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology (Sakai-Goshima Lab, Information and Communication Engineering)
6	Subrahmanyam Challapalli	Chemistry	Plasmon enhanced photoelectrochemical water splitting	BIJU Vasudevan Pillai	Hokkaido University	Research Institute for Electronic Science
7	Bhattacharjee Pinaki Prasad	Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering	Development of novel cost-effective eutectic high entropy alloys with superior mechanical properties	Tsuji Nobuhiro	Kyoto University	Materials Science and Engineering
8	Desarkar Maunendra Sankar	CSE	Generating natural language descriptions/summaries of data tables	Aizawa Akiko	National Institute of Informatics	Digital Content and Media Sciences Research Division
9	Shanmugam Suriya Prakash	Civil Engineering	Experimental Investigation on Fracture Behavior of High Strength Steel Reinforced Concrete using Acoustic Emission	KAWASAKI Yuma	Ritsumeikan University	Civil Engineering
10	BHATTACHARYYA DEBRAJ	Civil Engineering	Understanding the Fate and Effects of Pharmaceutically Active Compounds, Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Contaminated Water Bodies and in Treatment Plants	FUTAMATA Hiroyuki	Shizuoka University	Institution of Green Science and Technology
11	Dutta Gupta Shourya	Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering	Colloidal Crystal Materials Group, Research Center for Functional Materials	Fudouzi Hiroshi	NIMS, Japan	Colloidal Crystal Materials Group, Research Center for Functional Materials
12	Selvaraj Ambika	Civil Engineering	Application and Life Cycle Analysis of Waste-based Biochar for Water Treatment	Yoshikawa Naoki	Ritsumeikan University	Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Science and Engineering

Various activities to promote India-Japan collaboration, including Japan Desk events, are carried out with the support of the JICA project team. The main activities are as follows

Baseline Study Survey & Report Preparation
FRIENDSHIP2.0 Scholarship 2nd batch promotion activities
Japan Desk Logo Contest
Orientation for 1st batch FRIENDSHIP 2.0 Scholarship participants
Detailed planning survey & study and report (November 2022)
Japan Desk Collaboration events with Japanese companies
Participation in CEATEC International Exhibition (from 18th to 21st October at Makuhari Messe for on-site exhibition and from 1st to 31st October for online exhibition)
Online seminar to introduce IITH at CEATEC International Exhibition (19th October, 13:30-14:30)
2nd Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) meeting (1 st December @ IITH+ online)
Recruitment and selection of the second batch of FRIENDSHIP 2.0 Scholarship Scholars (about 20 Scholars) --Application deadline: 16th December
FRIENDSHIP2.0 Joint Research Grant Program Batch 2 Call for Applications and Selection (about 10) -- Application deadline November 2

Japan Desk

Purpose

Japan Desk to become a sustainable platform for academic and industry-university collaboration between India and Japan by providing a one-stop service in academic and industry-university collaboration at IITH.

Japan Desk Steering Committee

A Japan Desk Steering Committee and Japan Desk Partners will be established as a mechanism for the Japan Desk to develop and expand the India-Japan partnership sustainably and autonomously. The Steering Committee will consist of Deans who are in charge of facilitating Japan Desk activities and will support planning, decision-making, and implementation of activities. Regular meetings of the Steering Committee will be held to review the progress raised by the task forces and provide feedback to the task forces on the measures to be taken, and receive approval from the Director of IITH, who is also the Project Director.

Task Force

Task Forces are formed for Japan Desk activities by faculty and staff members from IITH to serve as working members for the various activities of the Japan Desk.

Japan Desk Partners

The Japan Desk Partners will be composed of external members from India-Japan partnership promotion organizations, the JICA Friendship Scholars’ Associations and IITH start-up companies, etc., and collaborates with the Steering Committee as necessary in providing expert advice and introducing relevant personnel through personal connections.