The British Council recently hosted the 2nd GREAT Oxbridge lecture in New Delhi in collaboration with the Oxford and Cambridge Society of India. The new ‘UK Alumni Digital Innovation Fund’ was launched that will simulate alumni associations in India, especially the 25 chapters of the Association of British Scholars, with new digital innovations to increase their membership across the country.
The British Council will award five winning ideas that help build connections between alumni and current students to foster a sense of community and continuity between generations. The competition is open to UK University networks in India may also apply. Interested candidates can refer to competition details at https://www.britishcouncil.in/programmes/uk-alumni/uk-alumni-digital-innovation-fund. The deadline for applications is the August 1.
British Council has also launched Famelab, a national talent competition for young scientists, with a special focus on young female students. Famelab helps early-career researchers acquire valuable skills to communicate their work accessibly and attractively to a non-scientific audience. The competition offers contestants training masterclasses, which focus on presentation and communication skills and aim to empower individual scientists and researchers in speaking about their work.
The winner of Famelab India will travel to The Times Cheltenham Science Festival in the UK to represent India at the Famelab International grand finale. For more information, log on to https://www.britishcouncil.in/programmes/higher-education/famelab.
With an overarching objective of supporting future UK-India cultural relations, they also announced 291 new GREAT scholarships, an increased number of Chevening awards, Commonwealth and Charles Wallace scholarships.
The 2016 UK-India Year of Education, Research and Innovation is a year-long campaign that aims to highlight the strength and mutual benefits between India and UK. Both the countries have been driving further UK- India partnerships and encouraging organisations and institutions to collaborate at national, regional and state level to create a new 21st century framework as partners in education, research and innovation, in the global context. Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Ministry of Human Resource Development are the lead Government departments and key owners of the campaign.