England’s best university, Imperial College London, will open a global hub in Bengaluru in May, and not a full-fledged study centre. Prof Hugh Brady, the president of Imperial College London, told FE that the Bengaluru hub will serve as a liaison office and will be used as a platform for co-created research partnerships between Imperial and India’s leading academic and research institutions, including the IITs and some government bodies.
“Called the Imperial Global India, it aims to deepen scientific, educational, and innovation ties between India and the United Kingdom,” Prof Brady said. “It will also function as a bridge for collaboration across government, industry, and innovation ecosystems. We also want to build on long-standing relationships between Imperial and Indian institutions, and seek to foster solutions to solve grand challenges being faced by India and the world.”
Grand challenges are problems such as future pandemics, water shortage, non-sustainable agriculture, climate change, rapid urbanisation, malnutrition, economic inequality, and so on.
Prof Brady, who has previously served as vice-chancellor & president of the University of Bristol, and president of University College Dublin, said that Imperial College has tremendous strength in science, engineering, medicine, and business (STEMB), with scientific discovery, innovation, and entrepreneurship, to create real-world impact. “Every day, our students, staff, and partners come together to interrogate the forces that shape our world. We do it so that we can tackle the biggest challenges facing the humanity, and shape a better future.”
Imperial has a strategic partnership with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, supporting joint projects across multiple scientific disciplines, and its research collaborations span institutions such as the AIIMS, IITs in Bombay, Delhi, and Kharagpur, and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Its scientists are working with Indian partners on challenges including antimicrobial resistance, climate change, and clean energy technologies.
Imperial Global India will be spearheaded by Prof Sanjeev Gupta (an earth scientist) and Dr Elena Dieckmann (whose expertise lies in biomaterials and the circular economy).
Krishi Mitra, a GenAI-powered voice assistant, is transforming Indian agriculture by offering personalized advice and information in local languages through advanced voice-to-text and natural language processing technology. The platform, ITCMAARS, also includes AI-powered tools to enhance productivity and reduce fertiliser usage.
