India and Germany have extended the tenure of the Indo-German Science and Technology Centre (IGSTC) by five years, it was announced on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who chaired a cabinet meeting here, was apprised about the signing of a joint declaration between India's science and technology ministry and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany on the extension of the tenure, an official statement said.
"The declaration is for the extension of tenure of the bilateral IGSTC for a period of five years beyond 2017 till 2022," it said.
This will enable the IGSTC to further enhance, strengthen and improve research and technology cooperation of industrial relevance through cooperation between laboratories, academia and industry of both the countries.
The joint research projects, involving academia and industry from both countries, will aim towards creation of new scientific knowledge base and the application of research results for technology development and application, it said.
The IGSTC will also support and fund selected research and development projects linking research laboratories and industry from India and Germany and assist in mobilising resources to carry out collaborative industrial research and development projects, it added.
The IGSTC, established under an agreement between the nations in October 2007 and which started operating in 2011, is currently supporting joint industrial research and development projects in areas such as advanced manufacturing, biomedical devices and healthcare, nanotechnology, automobile engineering, water sensors, clean energy technology and information and computing technology.
