SPARC

Subject: Schemes

Context:

Under SPARC schemes, researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras are collaborating with their counterparts in Germany to develop low cost technology for hydrogen production.

Concept:

• Scheme for Promotion of academic and Research Collaborationor SPARC is an initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
• This scheme will improve research ecosystem of  India’s higher educational institutions by facilitating academic and research collaborations between Indian Institutions [overall top-100 or category-wise top-100 in NIRF and the best institutions in the world (top-500 overall and top-200 subject-wise institutions listed in QS World University Ranking) from 28 selected nations to jointly solve problems of national and international relevance.
• A set of Nodal Institutions (NI), from India, for each participating foreign country has been identified. The role of a NI is to help, handhold and coordinate with willing Participating Indian (PI) Institutions to forge alliance with the Institutions of concerned participating foreign country, for academic and research collaboration.
• SPARC proposes to enable productive academic cooperation by supporting the following critical components that can catalyze impact making research :

1. 1. Visits and long-term stay of top international faculty/researchers in Indian institutions to pursue teaching and research
   2. Visits by Indian students for training and experimentation in premier laboratories worldwide
   3. Joint development of niche courses, world-class books and monographs, translatable patents, demonstrable technologies or action oriented research outcomes and products
   4. Publication, Dissemination and Visibility through a high profile annual international conference in India.